Prienai () is a city in Lithuania situated on the Nemunas River, south of Kaunas. In 2023, the city had 8,894 inhabitants. The name of the city is a derivative from the surname Prienas. 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 Baltic tribes. Lush forests, strategically useful valleys, and stunningly beautiful banks of the Nemunas 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. 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 Hungarian 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. In 1616, the Lithuanian nobleman and politician Stefan Pac, who would later become the Deputy Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, acquired Prienai. He and his sons Stanislovas and Mikołaj Stefan Pac owned it up until 1643.
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. However, in 1701, during the Great Northern War, the castle together with its amenities was completely destroyed. The 3rd Lithuanian Infantry Regiment was stationed in the town in 1792.
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. 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.
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. On 22–23 May 1948, 1,019 Lithuanians from the Prienai area were forced by the Soviets into cattle trains and deported to Siberia. In 1949, 675 more local people were deported to Siberia.
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Distances to other cities
These distances are as the crow flies and therefore do not represent actual overland distances.
In Lithuania:
- Kaunas:
- Vilnius:
- Šiauliai:
- Klaipėda:
In Europe:
- Białystok:
- Minsk:
- Riga:
- Warsaw:
- Tallinn:
- Helsinki:
- Stockholm:
- Copenhagen:
- Berlin: