Kybartai

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.

File:Stancija Veržbolovo1900.png

When in 1861 a branch of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway was built from Vilnius to the Prussian border, 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 bigger than Virbalis and the now Lithuanian border station is called Kybartai, too. The German station of the Prussian Eastern Railway on the western side of the frontier was Eydtkuhnen (Eitkūnai in Lithuanian), today it is the Russian border station and is called Chernyshevskoye (Чернышевское).

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. In 1927-1928, the Eucharistic Saviour Church was built according to the design of architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis.{{cite web |last1=Miškinis |first1=Algimantas |title=Kybartai |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/kybartai-1/ |website=vle.lt |publisher=LNB Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras |access-date=17 July 2024}}

Kybartai was the last place where President Antanas Smetona was staying in Lithuania. Late in the evening of 15 June 1940, when the Soviet Army invaded Lithuania, President Smetona fled from Kybartai to Germany after crossing the Liepona stream. {{cite web |title=Kybartų seniūnija |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130914051038/http://www.vilkaviskis.lt/index.php?-725858279 |website=vilkaviskis.lt |publisher=Vilkaviškio rajono savivaldybė |access-date=17 July 2024}} On 23 June 1940, the {{ill|Kybartai Acts|lt|Kybartų aktai}} were signed actually in Bern, but dated retrospectively by 15 June supposedly in Kybartai, marking the formal transfer of power to the so-called Provisional Government of Lithuania when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Army.[https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/kybartu-aktai/ Kybartų aktai], Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija

During World War II, Kybartai was again severely devastated (only 100 inhabitants remained). On June 30, 1941, an Einsatzgruppe of Germans and a few Lithuanian policemen perpetrated a mass execution of the local Jewish population. 106–116 men were murdered in a sand quarry.{{Cite web|url=http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/1/item/130/|title = Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania}} From July to Autumn 1941, other Jews from the town were executed with hundreds of victims from the nearby town of Virbalis on another execution site.{{Cite web|url=http://www.holocaustatlas.lt/EN/#a_atlas/search//page/1/item/131/|title = Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania}}

In 1945, the Kybartai Secondary School was founded and in 1964 was named after Kristijonas Donelaitis.

{{Weather box

|location = Kybartai (1991–2020 normals)

|single line = Yes

|metric first = Yes

|Jan high C = 0.1

|Feb high C = 0.9

|Mar high C = 5.5

|Apr high C = 13.0

|May high C = 18.6

|Jun high C = 21.5

|Jul high C = 23.9

|Aug high C = 23.5

|Sep high C = 18.2

|Oct high C = 11.6

|Nov high C = 5.7

|Dec high C = 1.7

|year high C = 12.0

|Jan mean C = -2.4

|Feb mean C = -1.8

|Mar mean C = 1.6

|Apr mean C = 7.8

|May mean C = 13.0

|Jun mean C = 16.3

|Jul mean C = 18.5

|Aug mean C = 18.0

|Sep mean C = 13.3

|Oct mean C = 7.9

|Nov mean C = 3.2

|Dec mean C = -0.6

|year mean C = 7.9

|Jan low C = −3.2

|Feb low C = −3.1

|Mar low C = -0.9

|Apr low C = 3.1

|May low C = 7.6

|Jun low C = 11.7

|Jul low C = 14.8

|Aug low C = 14.7

|Sep low C = 10.8

|Oct low C = 6.1

|Nov low C = 2.3

|Dec low C = -1.1

|year low C = 5.2

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 42

|Feb precipitation mm = 37

|Mar precipitation mm = 34

|Apr precipitation mm = 34

|May precipitation mm = 47

|Jun precipitation mm = 67

|Jul precipitation mm = 82

|Aug precipitation mm = 67

|Sep precipitation mm = 50

|Oct precipitation mm = 54

|Nov precipitation mm = 41

|Dec precipitation mm = 43

|year precipitation mm = 598

| Jan humidity = 86

| Feb humidity = 84

| Mar humidity = 79

| Apr humidity = 71

| May humidity = 70

| Jun humidity = 74

| Jul humidity = 76

| Aug humidity = 76

| Sep humidity = 80

| Oct humidity = 84

| Nov humidity = 88

| Dec humidity = 88

| year humidity = 80

|source 1 = Lithuanian Hydrometeorological Service{{cite web |title=Klimato duomenys 1991-2020|url=https://www.meteo.lt/klimatas/lietuvos-klimatas/klimato-duomenys/ |website=Lietuvos hidrometeorologijos tarnyba |language=lt}}}}

• the Russian landscape painter Isaac Ilyich Levitan (Russian language: Исаак Ильич Левитан, 1860–1900)
• the Polish composer Emil Młynarski (1870–1935)
• the Polish ethnographer Maria Znamierowska-Prüfferowa (1898-1990)
• the Austrian singer Harald Serafin (born 1931)
• the Lithuanian singer and politician {{ill|Inga Valinskienė|lt}} (born 1966)

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Category:Cities in Lithuania

Category:Cities in Marijampolė County

Category:Historic Jewish communities in Lithuania

Category:Holocaust locations in Lithuania

Category:Populated places established in the 16th century