Kybartai

History

Kybartai was founded during the reign of Sigismund I the Old by the colonization efforts of his wife, Queen Bona Sforza. In 1561, it was listed in the land register of Jurbarkas and Virbalis. When a branch of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway was built from Vilnius to the Prussian border in 1861, 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 (Вержболово; Lithuanian: Virbalis, German: Wirballen). Meanwhile, Kybartai has become a town larger than Virbalis and the current Lithuanian border station is also called Kybartai. The German station of the Prussian Eastern Railway on the western side of the frontier was (Lithuanian: ); today it is a Russian border station called (). In 1914, Kybartai had 10,000 inhabitants. The town was destroyed in World War I, but soon recovered and grew again. In 1919 and 1924, Kybartai was granted town rights and privileges. Small businesses began to set up. In 1919, the Žiburys Society founded a secondary school (later to become a gymnasium). Lithuanian, German, and Jewish schools and folk universities were established. In 1919, the first football club in Lithuania, FK Sveikata, was founded. In 1923, the town recorded a population of 6000. From 1927 to 1928, the Eucharistic Saviour Church was built based on a design by the architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis. Kybartai was the last place where President Antanas Smetona stayed in Lithuania. Late on the evening of June 15, 1940, when the Soviet Army invaded Lithuania, President Smetona fled from Kybartai to Germany after crossing Liepona Creek. On June 23, 1940, the were signed in Bern, but they were retroactively dated June 15, supposedly in Kybartai, marking the…

Most-observed species

• Fieldfare

  Turdus pilaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  53
• Yellowhammer

  Emberiza citrinella Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  53
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  51
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  50
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  50
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  49
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  48
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  45