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[[Image:Lithunia Upita Church.jpg|thumb|300px|The wooden [[St. Charles Borromeo]] church in Upytė (built in 1878 upon the foundations of an earlier church from 1742).]] |
[[Image:Lithunia Upita Church.jpg|thumb|300px|The wooden [[St. Charles Borromeo]] church in Upytė (built in 1878 upon the foundations of an earlier church from 1742).]] |
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'''Upytė''' |
'''Upytė''' ({{lang-pl|Upita}}) is a small village in [[Panevėžys district municipality]] in northern [[Lithuania]]. It is situated some 12 km southwest of [[Panevėžys]] on the banks of Vešeta Creek. It is now the capital of an [[elderate]]. In 1987 it had 580 residents. In the [[Lithuanian language]], Upytė is a [[diminutive]] form of the word, ''upė'', which means river. |
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==History== |
==History== |
Revision as of 20:46, 6 February 2008
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Lithunia_Upita_Church.jpg/300px-Lithunia_Upita_Church.jpg)
Upytė (Polish: Upita) is a small village in Panevėžys district municipality in northern Lithuania. It is situated some 12 km southwest of Panevėžys on the banks of Vešeta Creek. It is now the capital of an elderate. In 1987 it had 580 residents. In the Lithuanian language, Upytė is a diminutive form of the word, upė, which means river.
History
The name Upytė was first mentioned in 1254 in a Livonian chronicle dealing with the divisions of the Upmala region. Upytė had a wooden castle, and remnants of its ruins survived into the 18th century. The castle stood on an island in Lake Vešeta. The lake was later drained and the island became a hillfort. The castle was an important northern defence post against the numerous incursions of the Livonian Order. Between 1353 and 1379 alone, it repelled ten such attacks. The castle was further expanded and fortified in the 15th century, when it served as the seat of the Starost of Upytė. It is believed that the abandoned castle collapsed in the 17th century after the seat of the starost was moved to Panevėžys.
Upytė was a capital of the Upytė region (Lithuanian: Upytės žemė) in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The area was later made into an eldership, part of the Principality of Trakai. A document from 1556 states that Panevėžys, along with 57 other towns and 359 villages was part of this eldership. In the 1500's, Upytė began to lose its prominence when the defensive castle became obsolete. In 1548, Krekenava became the capital of the Upytė Eldership. At that time, Panevėžys grew to become a center of economic importance and Upytė became eclipsed by this rival. Nevertheless, Upytė is one of the longest surviving regional capitals from earlier times.
The elders of Upytė included Konstanty Ostrogski, Stanislovas Goštautas, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł and Janusz Radziwiłł. One of its elders, a delegate to Warsaw Sejm, Władysław Siciński (Polish name, known in Lithuanian as Čičinskas), bribed by Janusz Radziwiłł, was the first person to execute his Liberum veto rights in order to disrupt Sejm convention (in 1652). The Liberum veto was believed to be one of the factors leading to collapse of Polish-Lithuanian democracy, and eventually to the partition of the commonwealth by foreign powers. The incident was prominently mentioned in "The Deluge", one of the best known Polish historical novels by Henryk Sienkiewicz.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Lithuania_Stultiskiai_wooden_mill.jpg/220px-Lithuania_Stultiskiai_wooden_mill.jpg)
According to a local legend the evil master Čičinskas was struck by thunder god Perkūnas for all his sins, and his estate sank in a sinkhole located near the Upytė hillfort, called now the "Hill of Čičinskas". The legend has it that his dead body appeared since and haunted the Russians in the neighbourhood. Eventually, Mikhail Muravyov the Hanger ordered it to be exhumed and buried under the floor of the church in 1865. According to the legend this led to Muravyov's death soon after. Poets Adam Mickiewicz in his ballad The Stay in Upita and Maironis in his poem Čičinskas used this legend, as well as a number of other Lithuanian and Polish authors.
In 2004 Upytė celebrated its 750th anniversary by holding a conference Upytė Land: History and Culture.
In 1938 archeologists near Upytė excavated a graveyard dating from the 3-5th centuries. It contained 51 graves of women, men, and children. The graves provided a number of findings: men's graves had iron tools and guns (bridles, axes, knives, etc.) and women's had bronze jewellery (bracelets, pins, pedants, beads, etc.)
References
- Simas Sužiedėlis, ed. (1970–1978). "Upytė". Encyclopedia Lituanica. Vol. VI. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. pp. 599–600. LCC 74-114275.
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: CS1 maint: date format (link) - Template:Lt icon "Upytė seniūnija," Panevėžys district municipality. Accessed 7 October 2006.
- Template:Lt icon Jonas Zinkus; et al., eds. (1988). "Upytė". Tarybų Lietuvos enciklopedija. Vol. IV. Vilnius, Lithuania: Vyriausioji enciklopedijų redakcija. pp. 382–383.
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: Explicit use of et al. in:|editor=
(help) - Template:Lt icon Tomas Baranauskas, "Seniausios žinios apie Upytę," Voruta, No. 20 (566), 2 October 2004. Accessed 7 October 2006.
- Template:Lt icon Dalia Greviškienė, "Upytės žemės 750 metų jubiliejus," Voruta, No. 13 (559), 9 July 2004. Accessed 7 October 2006.