Ašmiany
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Ašmiany (Ashmiany, Belarusian: Ашмя́ны, Lithuanian: Ašmena, Polish: Oszmiana, Russian: Ошмяны) is a town in Hrodna voblast, Belarus (previously in Wilno guberniya, Imperial Russia), capital of the Ašmiany raion. It lies in the basin of the Oshmianka River, on hilly, fertile lands. The name is derived from the Lithuanian pl. "ašmenys", meaning "the cutting edge". It is also known as "Aschemynne" in the Chronicles of the Teutonic Knights.
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[edit] History
A fortified settlement in what is now Ašmiany was first mentioned by chroniclers in 1040, during one of raids by the forces of Prince Yaroslav I the Wise. Initially a part of the state of Polotsk, by the end of 13th century the town became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as mentioned by the Lithuanian and Samogitian Chronicle of 1341. In 1384, the Teutonic Knights attempted to attack Ašmiany as a beginning attempt to destroy the hereditary state of Jogaila. The Teutons managed to destroy the town, but it quickly recovered. In 1402 another Teutonic attack on the city occurred, but was bloodily repelled and the Teutons were forced to withdraw to Medininkai.
In 1413 the town became one of the most notable centres of trade and commerce within the Wilno Voivodship. Because of that, it became a battlefield of an important battle between the royal forces of Jogaila under Žygimantas Kęstutaitis and the forces of Švitrigaila allied with the Teutonic Order. After the town was taken by the royalists, it became a private property of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and started to develop rapidly. However, less than a century later the town was yet again destroyed and burnt to the ground, this time by the forces of Muscovy in 1519. The recovery did not occur as quickly as the previous time and in 1537 the town was granted with several royal privileges to facilitate the reconstruction. In 1566 the town finally received a city charter based on the Magdeburg Law, which was later confirmed (along with the privileges for the local merchants and burghers) by king Jan III Sobieski in 1683. In 16th century the town also became one of the most notable centres of Calvinism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, after Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł founded a collegiate and a church there.
In 1792 king Stanisław August Poniatowski confirmed all the previous privileges and the fact, that the town of Oszmiany, as it was called back then, was a free city, subordinate only to the king and the local city council. It was also then that the town received the first Coat of Arms in its history. Composed of three fields parted per pale, it featured a shield, a hand holding a weigh and the Ciołek Coat of Arms, a personal coat of arms of the monarch.
In the effect of the Partitions of Poland of 1795, the town was annexed by Imperial Russia. During the November Uprising it was liberated by its inhabitants led by a local priest Jasiński and Colonel Count Karol Przeździecki. However, in April of 1831 the freedom fighters were forced to withdraw to the Naliboki forest. After a minor skirmish, a Russian expeditionary force of some 1500 men at arms arrived to the town, burnt it and decimated its inhabitants. After that the town received a new coat of arms in 1845. Gradually rebuilt, it never recovered from the losses and by the end of 19th century it was rather a provincial town, inhabitated primarily by Jewish immigrants from other parts of Russia. In 1912 the local Jewish community was allowed to build a large synagogue.
After the World War I and the Polish-Bolshevik War, the town returned to Poland. Between the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and 1941 the town was occupied by the USSR and then until 1944 by Nazi Germany. In 1945 annexed by the USSR to the Byelorussian SSR, since 1991 it is a part of Belarus.
[edit] Buildings of Note
- Catholic church of St. Michael the Archangel
- Catholic church of Franciscan, built in 1822
- Synagogue, built in 1912
- Orthodox church of Resurrection, built in 1875
- Watermill
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Alternate Names: Oshmyany, Oszmiana, Aschemynne, Oshmyany, Asmena, Oshmana, Oshmene, Oshmina, Osmiany, Oszmiana, Ozmiana, Osmiana
- Mentioned in: Memoirs of Baron Lejeune, Volume II, Chapter VII.
