Giedraičiai is a town in
Molėtai district municipality,
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
with about 700 residents. It is located some 45 km north of
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
, capital of Lithuania, on the banks of Lake Kiementas. It is the capital of an
elderate. The town, according to a local legend founded by Duke
Giedrius, is first mentioned in written sources in 1338 when
Grand Duke
Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly:
* in ...
Gediminas
Gediminas ( – December 1341) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death in 1341.
He is considered the founder of Lithuania's capital Vilnius (see: Iron Wolf legend). During his reign, he brought under his rule lands from t ...
signed a peace treaty with the
Teutonic Knights
The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to t ...
. For a long time it was the centre of
Giedraitis family
Giedraitis is a Lithuanian language family name. The Polish-language version is Giedroyć.
Notable people with the surname include:
*Giedraitis family, noble family in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
* Andrius Giedraitis (born 1973), Lithuanian ba ...
estate.
History
It is known that since 1777, the town had a parish school. A hundred years later it was reorganized to a grammar, and later to middle school. Today, the high school is named after Antanas Jaroševičius, a painter who in 1912 published an album of Lithuanian crosses. The school building houses a small museum about local history.
In 1410, Church of
St. Bartholomew the Apostle was built. It was rebuilt in 1809 in the
Classicism style by Bishop of
Samogitia
Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...
Józef Giedroyć (), whose princely family originated from Giedraičiai. In 1838, after his death and according to his wishes, Józef Giedroyć's heart was inlaid into one of the walls. In the mid-19th century a new
bell tower
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...
was built. It is interesting because of unusual design: stone walls are decorated with red bricks.
In 1920 the town witnessed fights between
Lithuanians
Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...
and
Poles
Pole or poles may refer to:
People
*Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland
* Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist
...
led by
Lucjan Żeligowski. After the
Polish-Lithuanian War, Żeligowski staged a fake rebellion by Polish army units and captured Vilnius on October 9, 1920. His troops were advancing further, but were stopped near Giedraičiai and
Širvintos on November 17–21.
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
interfered and the fighting stopped, but the disputes over the
Vilnius region were not resolved. Today, the town commemorates the Lithuanian victims with a monument which has survived the Soviet regime. On ornament from the monument, a sword and a trumpet, is used in the coat of arms of the town.
During the occupation of Lithuania by Germany and its rule under German military, on July 7, 1941, and at the beginning of August 1941, a
death squad
A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...
of Lithuanian collaborators, ordered by German military administration, murdered Jews of the town in mass executions.
Transport
Molėtai Aero Club (
ICAO airport code
The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indic ...
: EYMO) is located some 7 km north of Giedraičiai.
See also
*
Giedroyć
References
#
External links
*
Photo gallery*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giedraiciai
Towns in Lithuania
Towns in Utena County
Vilensky Uyezd
Holocaust locations in Lithuania