Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), 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. Lithuania ...
. It is located some south from Panevėžys on the banks of the Upytė River, a tributary to the
Teutonic Knight
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
attack. Sometime before 1500 the first church was built and in 1503 the name "Ramygala" was used to refer to a town. Since then Ramygala slowly grew. Few years later it had a manor, and at the end of the 16th century it received a privilege to host fairs. Unlike many other towns in Lithuania, Ramygala did not belong to a noble family but rather to Vilnius Cathedral and later to Vilnius University.
In 1781 the town established a parish school next to a new church after the old one was destroyed by fire. The school grew and expanded significantly in the 20th century. It built two new school buildings and a dorm. In 2005 it was named Ramygala Gymnasium. The school hosts a small museum dedicated to the local history and traditions. A new Neo Gothic church was built in 1897–1914. It has 3 aisles and 3 altars. It features only one bell tower. The tower was damaged during World War II, but was rebuilt in the 1950s.
Administration
Since the second half of the 18th century, Ramygala was administrative center of a
valsčius
Volost ( rus, во́лость, p=ˈvoləsʲtʲ; ) was a traditional administrative subdivision in Eastern Europe.
In earlier East Slavic history, ''volost'' was a name for the territory ruled by the knyaz, a principality; either as an absolute ...
. After the administrative reform by the Soviet authorities in 1950, the town became a capital of a raion (Lithuanian: ''rajonas''). In 1962 Ramygala lost the status of the capital of a raion. Now it is a center of an eldership, the smallest administrative division in Lithuania. It has a small hospital and a library.
Maria Kaupas
Maria Kaupas, S.S.C., (January 6, 1880 – April 17, 1940) was an American Catholic religious sister who founded the Sisters of Saint Casimir.
She was born Casimira Kaupas in Ramygala, Russian Empire. At the age of 17, she emigrated to the Un ...
Mykolas Vrubliauskas Mykolas is a Lithuanian male given name derived from Michael. People with the name include:
*Mykolas Arlauskas (born 1930), agronomist, professor of biomedicine and signatory of 1990 Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania
*Mykolas Bi ...