Bitėnai
| Bitėnai | |||
| State : |
 Lithuania
|
||
| District : | Tauragė | ||
| Municipality : | Pagėgiai | ||
| Coordinates : | 55 ° 5 ' N , 22 ° 3' E | ||
| Inhabitants (place) : | 76 (2011) | ||
| Time zone : | EET (UTC + 2) | ||
|
|||
Bitėnai ( German Bittehnen ) is a village in the Lumpėnai district in the Pagėgiai municipality in Lithuania . The place is located on the northern bank of the Nemunas river (Memel) not far from the archaeologically and religiously significant hill Rambynas (Rombinus, nature reserve since 1992).
The place was first mentioned as a petition around 1500. The name indicates beekeeping: Prussian “please”: bee; Lithuanian "bitinai": queen bees. There is a 4 km long Bitė river flowing nearby .
Until the end of the First World War , the village belonged to the Ragnit district of the Kingdom of Prussia . As a result of the Versailles Treaty , the Memel area was separated so that the village belonged to the Pogegen district from January 10, 1920 and was administered by Lithuania from 1923. On March 22, 1939, the Pogegen district came back to the German Reich as a result of an ultimatum and was absorbed into the Tilsit-Ragnit district . Since the end of the German-Soviet War in 1945, the village has belonged to the Lithuanian municipality of Pagėgiai (Pogegen).
Attractions
The small museum dedicated to Martynas Jankus and the scenic Rambynas with the forest cemetery , to which the writer Wilhelm Storost (pseudonym Vydūnas, 1868–1953) and 1993 the Lithuanian patriot, printer and publisher Martynas Jankus (Martinus Jankus , 1858-1946) were reburied and a memorial stone for the theologian and poet Kristijonas Donelaitis (Latinized Christian Donalitius, 1714-1780) was erected.
Bitėnai is home to the largest stork colony in the Memel region.
Population development
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1959 | 289 |
| 1970 | 256 |
| 1979 | 173 |
| 1989 | 120 |
| 2001 | 109 |
| 2011 | 76 |
Bitėnai's sons and daughters
- Martynas Jankus (1858–1946), printer and publisher
literature
- Ulla Lachauer : Paradise Street. Memoirs of the East Prussian farmer Lena Grigoleit. One-time special edition. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-499-23390-8 ( rororo 23390).
- Mažosios Lietuvos Enciklopedija. Volume 1: A-Kar. Mokslo ir enciklopedijų Leidybos institutas, Vilnius 2000, ISBN 5-420-01471-8 ( Foundation of Lithuania Minor: Mažosios Lietuvos Fondo leidiniai 20).
- Vilius Pėteraitis: Mažosios Lietuvos ir Tvankstos vietovardžiai. Jų kilmė ir reikšmė. Mokslo ir enciklopedijų Leidybos institutas, Vilnius 1997, ISBN 5-420-01376-2 ( Foundation of Lithuania Minor: Mažosios Lietuvos Fondo leidiniai 6).
