Birštonas success story - 640 years!

What does this story of mentioning Birštonas in the sources reveal to us? For the first time in history, the name of Birštonas appears in a chronicle written in the Old German language of the chroniclers of the German Order by Vygandas Marburgietis and published in 1394. The story reads: “In 1382, during the cold and snow, Marshal marched against the Lithuanians. As he approached the ground, he divided the army into three. One went towards Birštonas Castle, but quickly retreated; saw the second in the land of Punia, the third in Alytus ”. This story, which is both a short episode mentioned here and a full version, reveals even more interesting and pleasurable discoveries in the analysis, which has every opportunity to become a wonderful story of the beginning of the city’s history. It survives in a Latin translation of the chronicle in 1464, in which Birštonas is mentioned as a castle from which the soldiers of the Order still have to retreat.

In order to better assess the historical situation, it is necessary to spread the totality of the historical circumstances of that time.

Intensive struggles between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the German Order are taking place during the mentioned period. Part of the action takes the form of direct military action, with attacks prepared by both sides. Other struggles, strange as they may now seem, are taking place in diplomatic form, with the leaders of the warring parties communicating even live. It is known that the Commander of the Order, Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode, maintained close diplomatic relations with the Dukes of Lithuania. In 1379, in Trakai, with the participation of the dukes Kęstutis, Jogaila and Vytautas, he signed a non-aggression treaty. May 31 During the hunt, Dogydiškės signed a peace treaty with Duke Jogaila. During the reign of this Master, the Order is considered to have achieved the highest prestige in Europe and has expanded its influence the most.

Konrad Ciolner, who became the Grand Master after the death of Vinrich von Kniprode, also pursues a strategy of close relations with the Lithuanian dukes, but, unlike his predecessor, supports Vytautas rather than Jogailas in the struggle for influence in Lithuania. Although the Dubysa treaty against Kęstutis and Vytautas was signed with Jogaila in October 1382, at the end of the same year Vytautas was accepted in the capital of the Order in Königsberg, and in 1383 the Order and Vytautas were already organizing military campaigns against Jogaila. The Grand Master himself shouldered with Vytautas on a military march against Jagiellonia to Vilnius.

Such internal struggles of the noble tribes for the throne, which sometimes angered or grieved us, while interested in history or while still studying history at school, as debilitating events, which is true anyway, are no distinction in medieval states. On the contrary, it is more the norm. Like the fact that a city or settlement at that time is on the side of the rival whose military crew is standing in that city.

Thus, in February 1382, Birštonas found itself in the whirlwind of such military and political struggles, at that time, like most of the Lithuanian settlements along the Nemunas River, being in a strategic location on the border with the Order.

There is no doubt that during the mentioned period Kęstutis was the Grand Duke of Lithuania, who ruled until his death in August 1382. This becomes clear in the same story of the first story of Birštonas, when the soldiers of the Order, who had already invaded the depths of Lithuania, were attacked and dispersed by Vytautas, the son of Kęstutis, with his soldiers. That Birštonas was on the Lithuanian side of Duke Kęstutis at that time can be deduced from the facts in this story that one of the Order's soldiers "went to Birštonas Castle" and the following episode that "they worked like enemies everywhere". This means that Birštonas is becoming one of the targets of the Order's aggression against Kęstutis Lithuania.

The information was prepared by Simonas Matulevičius