Varniai Varniai Varniai
Voruta may have been the
capital cityCapital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of the
Grand Duchy of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was an Eastern and Central European state from the 12th /13th century until 1795. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the pagan Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija...
and the
Kingdom of LithuaniaThe Kingdom of Lithuania was a Lithuanian monarchy which existed from 1251 to roughly 1263.The status of a kingdom was granted by Pope Innocent IV, when the state was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, on July 17, 1251. Two years later, the Lithuanian ruler Mindaugas was crowned...
during the reign of king
MindaugasMindaugas was the first known Grand Duke of Lithuania and the only King of Lithuania. Little is known of his origins, early life, or rise to power; he is mentioned in a 1219 treaty as an elder duke, and in 1236 as the leader of all the Lithuanians...
in the 13th century. The exact location of Voruta is unknown and there are many contradictory theories about it. Despite all the uncertainties, the concept of Voruta is well-known and popular in the Lithuanian imagination.
Mindaugas, the first and the only crowned
Lithuanian kingKing of Lithuania, the title of rulers of Lithuanian state recognised by the Pope. The first of them was King Mindaugas who founded the Christian Kingdom of Lithuania; his successors, however, were known as Grand Dukes, as Lithuania reverted to paganism until the end of 14th century...
, defended himself in Voruta during an internal war against his nephews
TautvilasTautvilas or Tautvila was Duke of Polatsk and one of the sons of Dausprungas and nephews of King of Lithuania Mindaugas. Tautvilas together with his brother Edivydas and uncle Vykintas waged a civil war against Mindaugas...
and Edivydas and Duke of
SamogitiaSamogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania.-Geography:The region is located in northwestern Lithuania in the territories of Palanga city municipality, Rietavas municipality, Tauragė district municipality, Šilalė district municipality, Skuodas district municipality, Jurbarkas...
Vykintasthumb|200 px|Monument to Duke Vykintas in TveraiVykintas was Duke of Samogitia and rival to future King of Lithuania Mindaugas. In 1236 he probably led Samogitian forces in the Battle of Saule against the Livonian Order...
in 1251. This information, taken from the Hypatian Chronicle, is the only recorded message about Voruta. Mindaugas' castle is mentioned in two more written sources, but neither its name nor location is specified. It is also unclear whether they refer to the same castle or to different locations.
Nevertheless, some historians in 19th and 20th centuries called it "the first capital of Lithuania" and attempted to identify its location. Most argued that Voruta is the current capital of Lithuania
VilniusVilnius Vilnius Vilnius (, also known by several other names, is the largest city and the capital of Lithuania, with a population of 555,613 (847,954 together with Vilnius County) as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
or the medieval capital at
KernavėKernavė , a medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, today is a tourist and archeological village in Širvintos district municipality in southeast Lithuania...
. Modern Lithuanian historian
Tomas BaranauskasTomas Baranauskas is a Lithuanian historian specializing in the history of medieval Lithuania. He is the author of the book "The Formation of the Lithuanian State"....
believes that it is Šeimyniškėliai (literally, a diminutive plural form of
šeiminykštis, meaning
war prisonerA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
s turned into family servants) Hillfort near
AnykščiaiAnykščiai is a ski resort town in Lithuania, 20 miles west of Utena. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Matthias in Anykščiai is the tallest church in Lithuania, with spires measuring 79 meters in height....
, the biggest in the Eastern Lithuania. In total there were about fourteen suggested locations of Voruta. Others argue that Voruta was not an actual city, but just a misinterpretation of a word that means
capital. In opinion of
Kazimieras BūgaKazimieras Būga was a Lithuanian linguist and philologist. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the Lithuanian language.He was born at Pažiegė, near Dusetos, then part of the Russian Empire...
, one of the prominent Lithuanian philologists, the word
voruta simply means
castle.
List of suggested locations
These sites were suggested by various historians in various times:
- Berzgainiai in Ukmergė district by Petras Tarasenka
- Buteikiai in Anykščiai district by Kazimieras Žebrys
- Gorodishche
The former castle in Navahrudak, Belarus was one of the key strongholds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, cited by Maciej Stryjkowski as the location of Mindaugas's coronation as King of Lithuania as well as his likely burial place...
near Navahrudak by Teodor NarbuttTeodor Narbutt was a Polish-Lithuanian writer, Romanticist historian and military engineer. He is notable as the author of a concise Polish-language history of Lithuania from the early Middle Ages to the Union of Lublin.-Life:...
- Kernavė
Kernavė , a medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, today is a tourist and archeological village in Širvintos district municipality in southeast Lithuania...
by Fryderyk Papée
- Karelich near Navahrudak by Mikola Yermalovich
Mikola Yermalovich — Belarusian writer, historian. He graduated from Minsk Pedagogical Institute in 1947.-Bibliography:* Dear to Belarusians name...
- Liškiava
Liškiava is a historic village in the Varėna district municipality, Lithuania. It is situated on the bank of Neman River, near the Lake Liškiavis. In 2005 its population was 37....
by Jonas TotoraitisJonas Totoraitis was a Roman Catholic priest and historian. Totoraitis studied at the Theological Seminary of Sejny. He went on to Freiburg University in Switzerland, where his doctoral dissertation on the life of King Mindaugas, Die Litauer unter dem König Mindowe bis zum Jahre 1263, the first...
- Medininkai
Medininkai is a village and commune in Lithuania, 26km from Vilnius and 2km from the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. According to 2001 census, the village had just more than 500 residents. The village is situated on the Medininkai highland, and the highest points, Juozapinė Hill and Aukštojas Hill,...
by Evaldas Gečiauskas
- Ročiškė in Raseiniai district by Ludwik Krzywicki
Ludwik Krzywicki was a Polish anthropologist, economist and sociologist. One of the early champions of sociology in Poland, he approached historical materialism from a sociological viewpoint...
- Šeimyniškėliai in Anykščiai district by Eduards Volters
- Ūturiai in Raseiniai district by Wojciech Kętrzyński
thumb|Kętrzyński-Monument in [[Kętrzyn]].Wojciech Kętrzyński , born Adalbert von Winkler, was a historian and the director of the Ossolineum Library in Lwów, Austrian partition of Poland. He focused on Polish history in a time when no independent Polish state existed...
- Varniany in Hrodna Voblast
Hrodna Voblast or Grodno Oblast is a voblast in northwestern Belarus....
, Belarus by Juliusz Latkowski
- Vilnius
Vilnius Vilnius Vilnius (, also known by several other names, is the largest city and the capital of Lithuania, with a population of 555,613 (847,954 together with Vilnius County) as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
by Romas Batūra
- Area of Daugai
Daugai is a small city in Alytus district municipality, Lithuania. It is 20 km east of Alytus. Didžiulis lake is close to the city....
–VarėnaVarėna is a city in Dzūkija, Lithuania. The town was founded in 1862 near the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway, south of Sena Varėna . At that time it was a small settlement, but following steady development it eventually became the center of the district in 1950. In the interbellum period, the...
by Henryk Łowmiański
- Area of Medvėgalis–Varniai
Varniai Varniai Varniai (, is a city in the Telšiai County, western Lithuania. In the Middle Ages the city was known as Medininkai. It was established in the 14th century, on the bank of the Varnelė River, near an important Samogitian castle. It was the center of Samogitian Catholic church: after...
by Antanas Steponaitis
Since publication, some of the theories have been largely discredited.
External links