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Virbalis

Coordinates: 54°38′0″N 22°49′0″E / 54.63333°N 22.81667°E / 54.63333; 22.81667
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Virbalis
City
Coat of arms of Virbalis
Coat of arms
Virbalis is located in Lithuania
Virbalis
Virbalis
Location of Virbalis
Coordinates: 54°38′0″N 22°49′0″E / 54.63333°N 22.81667°E / 54.63333; 22.81667
Country Lithuania
Ethnographic regionSuvalkija
County Marijampolė County
MunicipalityVilkaviškis district municipality
EldershipVirbalis eldership
Capital ofVirbalis eldership
First mentioned1529
Granted city rights1593
Population
 (2020)
 • Total895
Time zoneUTC+2 (EET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+3 (EEST)

Virbalis (pronunciationⓘ, Polish: Wierzbołów, Yiddish: ווירבאלן Virbalen) is a city in the Vilkaviškis district municipality, Lithuania.[1] It is located 12 km (7.5 mi) west of Vilkaviškis.

History

It is frequently mentioned in historical as well in modern literature.[2] It was the site of the formation of the Wierzbołów Confederation by Paweł Jan Sapieha in 1655 during the Deluge (part of the Second Northern War). Later it was the first station for stagecoaches and later the first railway station in the Russian Empire when leaving Germany.

When in 1861 a branch of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway was built from Vilnius to the Prussian border, where it was linked to the Prussian Eastern Railway, the Russian border station near the village of Kybartai was named after the neighbouring town of Verzhbolovo. Meanwhile, Kybartai has become a town bigger than Virbalis, and the Lithuanian border station is now called Kybartai, too.[2] The German station of the Prussian Eastern Railway on the western side of the frontier was Eydtkuhnen; today, as consequence of the annexation of the northern part of East Prussia by the Soviet Union in 1945, it is a Russian border station and called Chernyshevskoye (Russian: Черныше́вское).

Between mid-July and autumn 1941, an Einsatzgruppe of German SS troops aided by local Lithuanian auxiliary police from Virbalis and Vilkaviškis slaughtered 670–700 Jews from Virbalis and the nearby town of Kybartai in several mass executions. A memorial was built on the site of the massacre.[3]

  • Market in Virbalis and its old church (before 1912)
    Market in Virbalis and its old church (before 1912)
  • Train station in Virbalis (before 1917)
    Train station in Virbalis (before 1917)
  • Cemetery Chapel of Rekosz family (~1860)
    Cemetery Chapel of Rekosz family (~1860)
  • Virbalis eldership building, built in 1925
    Virbalis eldership building, built in 1925
  • Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Virbalis
    Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Virbalis
  • Cultural centre in Virbalis
    Cultural centre in Virbalis
  • School in Virbalis
    School in Virbalis

References

  1. ^ "Virbalis". vle.lt. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Virbalio istorija". virbaliovartai.lt. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Mass Murder of the Jews in Virbalis". Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
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