Prienai

Prienai (Lithuanian pronunciation: [prʲɪ̂ɛ.nɐɪ̯ˑ] ^ⓘ) is a city in Lithuania situated on the Nemunas River, 29 km (18 mi) 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.

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.

The first documented mention of Prienai is in 1502, 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. In the early 18th century, the city somewhat recovered from the devastation of the Great Northern War, and in the place of the former castle, the Butler family had built a spacious two-storeyed Baroque styled manor house. On the ground floor, there was a large guest-hall and 16 rooms. On the first floor, there were 11 additional rooms and a sizable great hall. Yet over the course of the next century, the Prienai manor house was gradually abandoned. At the onset of the 20th century, only rubble remained. 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.

Following the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Prienai was invaded and occupied by Prussia. Prussia ruled there during the years 1795-1807 and made Prienai part of New East Prussia. At the end of the eighteenth century, Prienai underwent rapid economic growth. During that time, a glass factory and a paper mill, one of the largest in Lithuania, were established near the town. The paper mill produced extraordinary high quality white, coloured, and wrapping paper, which was often exported to cities as distant as Warsaw and Saint Petersburg.

After Napoleon defeated Prussia, in 1807, Prussian-occupied Lithuanian territories were transferred to the newly established Polish Duchy of Warsaw. The Napoleonic Code was then introduced in this region, which abolished serfdom and guaranteed equality before the law.