Prienai () is a city in Lithuania situated on the Neman River, south of Kaunas. In 2023, the city had 8,894 inhabitants.[A. Vanagas. Lietuvos miestų vardai. 1996, p.182] Pociūnai Airport is associated with the city.
History
Early history
The history of Prienai and its surroundings is closely linked to that of the
Baltic region. Traces of sporadic human settlement go back to the
Neolithic period.
However, the vast majority of archeological findings such as tools and antiquity coins date back to the
Iron Age, when the region of Prienai was inhabited by early
Balts.
Lush forests, strategically useful valleys, and stunningly beautiful banks of the
Neman River were among the main reasons why the area became dotted with 28
hillforts, many of which were relatively densely populated thousands of years ago.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
first documented mention of Prienai is in 1502,
when the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander gave the land of Prienai to the noble
Mykolas Glinskis, who, following his exile from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, became the tutor of his nephew Ivan the Terrible. In 1609, the city was granted the
Magdeburg rights, though they were greatly expanded in 1791 by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislaw II Augustus. The city's arms showing St. George killing the dragon was granted in the same year. St. George was one of the patron saints of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In 1579, Prienai was given by Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory to the Hungary nobleman Gabriel Bekes, brother of the more famed Gáspár Bekes, for his loyal participation in the Livonian War. The Bekes family ruled Prienai for the next two decades. Afterwards, it became the property of another Hungarian nobleman named Kaspar Horvat.
For almost one and a half centuries, Prienai was ruled by the Butler family. In 1661, Count Gothard Wilhelm Butler, a Lithuanian nobleman of distant Scottish descent, built the Prienai castle.
The first wooden church in Prienai was built in 1604. Thanks to the active personal involvement of a priest named Vaitiekus Izdebskis, seventy years later, a newer and much larger church was built to replace the old one. The present Baroque styled church was built in 1750, though it was refurbished and slightly expanded in 1875.
Prussia, Napoleon and the Russian Empire
Following the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Prienai was invaded and occupied by Prussia. Prussia ruled there during the years 1795-1807 and made Prienai part of New East Prussia. At the end of the eighteenth century, Prienai underwent rapid economic growth. During that time, a glass factory and a paper mill, one of the largest in Lithuania, were established near the town. The paper mill produced extraordinary high quality white, coloured, and wrapping paper, which was often exported to cities as distant as
Warsaw and
Saint Petersburg.
After Napoleon defeated Prussia, in 1807, Prussian-occupied Lithuanian territories were transferred to the newly established Polish Duchy of Warsaw. The Napoleonic Code was then introduced in this region, which abolished serfdom and guaranteed equality before the law.
Following the demise of Napoleon in 1815, and the Congress of Vienna, Prienai together with its surroundings, were annexed by the Russian Empire.
The town dwellers of Prienai, together with the inhabitants of neighbouring towns and villages, actively participated in the November Uprising of 1830-1831 and the January Uprising of 1863–1864, both of which sought to liberate Lithuanians from the Russian yoke.
Republic of Lithuania
Following Lithuania's restoration of independence in 1918, Prienai became the center of the county and witnessed unprecedented expansion. By 1937, Prienai had a population of around 4,200; there were 4 banks, 2 pharmacies, 121 shops, 5 mills, a number of sawmills and countless workshops in the city.
At that time, the mayor of the city was Julius Greimas, the father of the world renowned
-
France literary scientist and semiotician Algirdas Julien Greimas.
Yet despite the flurry of diverse economic activity,
brewing was indisputably the most significant industry in Prienai.
The Goldberg beer brewery was established back in 1868, and during the
interwar period, its facilities dominated the urban landscape of the city.
According to local contemporaries, the brewery produced one of the finest beers in Lithuania and its products were regularly exported to
Latvia,
Poland, and the
Soviet Union.
However, the brewery, together with most of its buildings, was completely destroyed by the German
Luftwaffe during a bombing raid in June 1941.
World War II and its aftermath
During World War II, when it was occupied by German troops, Prienai lost many of its inhabitants. People
emigration or were expelled, while the
Nazism killed the
Jews. On August 27, 1941, 1,078 Jews from Prienai and surrounding areas were murdered in Prienai. The massacre was perpetrated by Rollkommando Hamann and local collaborators.
In the aftermath of World War II, Prienai was occupied by the Soviet Union and its population suffered additional losses. Throughout 1945–1946, the Soviets murdered 39 inhabitants from Prienai and its surroundings.
Notable people
-
Bernard Revel (1885-1940), first President of Yeshiva University
-
Bluma Zeigarnik (1900–1988), Russian psychologist
-
Jonas Kazlauskas (1930–1970), Lithuanian scientist, philology professor of Vilnius University, historical grammatics and baltic philology researcher
-
Justinas Marcinkevičius, poet
-
Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, writer
-
Matas Šalčius, writer, traveler
-
Sonata Milušauskaitė, race walker
-
Nikodemas Silvanavičius, painter
Industry
AB „Sportinė aviacija“ for a long time was the only glider factory in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1969. The first Lithuanian glassfibre glider BK-7 "Lietuva" was built here.
Sport
Prienai is home to
BC Prienai (formerly BC Prienai / BC Rūdupis / BC Tonybet), a basketball team that competes in the Lithuanian Basketball League.
Twin towns – sister cities
Prienai is
Sister city with:
Distances to other cities
These distances are as the crow flies and therefore do not represent actual overland distances.
In Lithuania:
In Europe:
