Zarasai
| Zarasai | |||
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| State : |
 Lithuania
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| District : | Utena | ||
| Rajong municipality : | Zarasai | ||
| Coordinates : | 55 ° 44 ′ N , 26 ° 15 ′ E | ||
| Area (place) : | 17.5 km² | ||
| Community area : | 1,334 km² | ||
| Inhabitants (place) : | 7,694 (2010) | ||
| Population density : | 440 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Inhabitant (municipality) : | 19,892 | ||
| Population density : | 15 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Time zone : | EET (UTC + 2) | ||
| Telephone code : | (+370) 385 | ||
| Postal code : | 32001 | ||
| Status: | Rajong Parish | ||
| Structure : | 1 city office (core city), 9 further administrative districts |
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Zarasai ( Polish Jeziorosy; from 1939 to 1945 Ossersee ) is a town of about 8,000 residents in the far northeast of Lithuania and seat of the same name Rajongemeinde , and in the same a municipal office district.
city
The city lies in a hilly landscape rich in forests and lakes. The lakes Zarasas , Zarasaitis, Baltas and Griežtas are in the immediate vicinity . Zarasai is crossed by the A6 / E262 trunk road from Kaunas to Daugavpils .
Names
- 1522 Jesiorosy
- 1836 Novoaleksandrovsk ( Новоалександровск )
- 1919 Ežerėnai
- 1929 Zarasai
- 1939–1945 Ossersee
The name is probably derived from Selonian * Ezerasai , Ezeresamus (from the adjacent lake, Ezerasas ) to * ezeras for lake (Polish jesioro lake ), also Ežerėnai and Zarasai from Lithuanian ežeras for lake . The name Novoaleksandrovsk refers to Alexander II , the later Russian tsar.
history
The first known mention of the place comes from 1506 as Jeziorosa . On the island in Lake Zarasas there was probably a monastery in earlier times, but it was closed in 1520. The settlement's church was then moved to the lakeside.
In the 17th century the place had about 800 inhabitants, five streets and an inn. Due to the Great Northern War and the epidemics it triggered (1708-11), the place was almost depopulated and it was not until the end of the 18th century that trade and handicrafts revived.
In 1795, with the Third Partition of Poland , it fell to the Russian Empire and at that time had around 300 residents. After renewed destruction during Napoleon's Russian campaign in 1812, the city enjoyed a strong boom in the 19th century as a market town on the St. Petersburg - Warsaw post road .
A driving element was the immigration of Jews to Zarasai. Until 1794 only one Jewish family, the operators of the episcopal inn, lived in the city. With the influx of Jews from Poland, Russia and Lithuanian cities like Trakai , their number grew to 370 by 1837, 54 of the 94 houses in the town.
As early as 1836, on the occasion of the visit of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I , the city was renamed Novoaleksandrovsk ( Новоалександровск ) after his eldest son Alexander II and kept this name until 1918.
The same Nicholas I granted the Jews in the Russian Empire tax rebates and exemption from military service in 1834 if they settled in sparsely populated areas. Most of the Jews in Zarasai hired themselves out as small traders and landlords, the poorer ones moved across the country as traveling traders.
By 1903 the Jewish population had increased to 4,552, two thirds of the total population. There were two synagogues, six rooms, two schools and two bathhouses.
In 1872 the city of Zarasai got its present form with a network of streets running radially from a central square, unique in Lithuania.
The city received the name Ežerėnai after the First World War , which it kept until 1929.
After the war of liberation in 1919/20, Zarasai found himself in the extreme northeast of the country, not far from the impervious borders with Latvia and Poland . This interrupted the good economic development.
The German occupation in World War II meant the end of the Jewish settlement of the city, which until then had made up a large part of the population. The German authorities drove the Jews of the region to the forest house of Pažemis forest and on 26. August 1941 shot and killed, according to the Hunter report a roll command of EK. 3 of the SS under the leadership of Obersturmbannführer Joachim Hamann 2,569 Jews from Zarasai and the surrounding area in the Krakynė forest. Another source even speaks of 8,000 dead.
After the Second World War, some survivors returned, however (also due to emigration to Israel) only 23 Jews lived in Zarasai in 1979, in 1989 only 14.
In 2008 the city was the cultural capital of Lithuania .
Rajong Parish
The Rajongemeinde Zarasai includes the two cities Zarasai and Dusetos (4,367 E.), the 3 towns ( miesteliai ) Antalieptė , Salakas and Turmantas , and 793 villages.
coat of arms
Blazon : "In blue over a black shield base separated by a silver bar, inside a left-pointing silver flaming sword, floating a silver mythical creature made of a roebuck body and fish body, above a golden disc."
Declaration of the coat of arms: The mythical creature symbolizes the abundance of forests, game and fish in the city, the disk the sun, the flaming sword indicates battles and jurisdiction in the city's history. After Lithuania's independence, the coat of arms was officially introduced on March 7, 1996.
Personalities
- Armanas Abramavičius (* 1962), criminal lawyer
- Jehuda Pen (1852–1937), painter, teacher of Marc Chagall
- Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel (1878–1928), General of the White Army in the Russian Civil War
Web links
- Homepage of Zarasai County (Lithuanian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Laima Raubiškienė. Zarasai laiko vilnyse . Utena 2006, p. 53 f.
- ↑ Bodo Thöns: Discovering Lithuania , p. 266 ; Homepage of the Association of Lithuanian Museums ( Memento from January 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hunter report
- ↑ J. Nemanis. Zarasų rajonu kultūros paveldas . Zarasai, 1994, p. 34.
- ↑ Laima Raubiškienė. Zarasai laiko vilnyse . Utena 2006, p. 57