Virbalis

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title: "Virbalis" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["virbalis", "cities-in-lithuania", "cities-in-marijampolė-county", "holocaust-locations-in-lithuania"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virbalis" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement "]

Field	Value
name	Virbalis
settlement_type	Town
image_skyline	Virbalio seniūnija.JPG
image_caption	Virbalis eldership building
pushpin_map	Lithuania
pushpin_label_position
pushpin_map_caption	Location of Virbalis
image_shield	Virbalis COA.gif
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name
subdivision_type1	Ethnographic region
subdivision_name1	Suvalkija
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	[[File:Marijampole County flag.svg
subdivision_type3	Municipality
subdivision_name3	Vilkaviškis district municipality
subdivision_type4	Eldership
subdivision_name4	Virbalis eldership
subdivision_type6	Capital of
subdivision_name6	Virbalis eldership
established_date	1529
established_title	First mentioned
established_date2	1593
established_title2	Granted town rights
population_total	895
population_as_of	2020
timezone	EET
utc_offset	+2
timezone_DST	EEST
utc_offset_DST	+3
::

Virbalis (, , , ) is a city in the Vilkaviškis district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 12 km west of Vilkaviškis.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Wirballen1911Veržbolovo.png" caption="Market in Virbalis and its old church"] ::

It is frequently mentioned in historical as well in modern literature. In 1529–67 Virbalis was mentioned in the lists of non-privileged cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1536 Virbalis received the privilege of founding the city and a market. In 1555 a church was built. In 1576 it was allowed to held markets in Virbalis. In 1593 Virbalis received the Magdeburg rights and the coat of arms. In 1601 a workshop of various crafts was established, in 1602 – a shoemaker and tailors' workshop. From 1643 to 1819 there was a Dominican Monastery, and in the middle of the 17th century a Dominican Church was built in the city (which was blown up in 1944). In 1646 a Virbalis Parish School is mentioned. It was the site of the formation of the Virbalis Confederation () by Janusz Radziwiłł in 1655 during the Deluge (part of the Second Northern War) whose main purpose was to defend the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John II Casimir Vasa. In 1785–1819 there was a three classes school, in 1819–70 a parish school, and later a public school.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Control_post_of_the_German-Russian_border_in_Virbalis-Kybartai_(19th_or_early_20th_centuries).jpg" caption="Russian empires"] ::

When in 1861 a branch of the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway was built through Virbalis 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. Meanwhile, Kybartai has become a town bigger than Virbalis, and the Lithuanian border station is now called Kybartai, too. It was the first station for stagecoaches and later the first railway station in the Russian Empire when leaving Prussia. A steam locomotive was parked at the railway station to transport the tsar around Russian Empire (since it was the border of the empire). The German station of the Prussian Eastern Railway on the western side of the frontier was Eydtkuhnen (Eitkūnai); today, as consequence of the annexation of the northern part of East Prussia by the Soviet Union in 1945, it is a Russian border station and is called Chernyshevskoye ().

In 1914, there was the Battle of Virbalis, which was among the first of World War I.

Following the restoration of Independence of Lithuania in 1918, Virbalis became part of the restored Lithuania and had a power plant, a brick factory, 3 windmills, an oil press, cement workshops, lubricants workshops, a small credit society, as well as branches of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party, Lithuanian Nationalist Union, Lithuanian Farmers Union, Pavasarininkai, Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, and young Lithuanians (). In 1932 Virbalis received second-class city rights. In 1924 a Vilkaviškis–Marijampolė bus line was opened through Virbalis, which was one of the first bus lines in Lithuania.

During World War II, the town was under Soviet occupation from 1940, and then under German occupation from 1941 to 1944. Between mid-July and autumn 1941, an Einsatzgruppe of German SS troops aided by local Lithuanian auxiliary police from Virbalis and Vilkaviškis slaughtered 670–700 Jews from Virbalis and the nearby town of Kybartai in several mass executions. A memorial was built on the site of the massacre. About 80% of Virbalis' buildings were destroyed during World War II. Following the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1944, Virbalis was the central settlement of the collective farm.

In 1993 the coat of arms of Virbalis was approved.

Gallery

WirballenStation.jpg|Train station in Virbalis (before 1917) Virbalis, kapinės.JPG|Cemetery Chapel of Rekosz family (~1860) Virbalio Šv. arkangelo Mykolo bažnyčia 2.JPG|Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Virbalis Virbalis, kultūros namai.JPG|Cultural centre in Virbalis Virbalio mokykla.JPG|School in Virbalis Virbalio geležinkelio stoties plombos.jpg|Former seals of the Virbalis Railway Station with Coat of arms of Lithuania

References

"Virbalis".
"Virbalio istorija".
(2005). "Virbalis mano prisiminimuose: Virbalio praeitis (I dalis)". Virbalio miesto biblioteka.
(2005). "Litwa: przewodnik". Oficyna Wydawnicza "Rewasz".
"Virbalis, Lietuva".
"Eydtkuhnen (Ostpreußen)".
"Eitkūnai".
"Mass Murder of the Jews in Virbalis".
"Dekretas dėl Virbalio miesto herbo patvirtinimo". [[President of Lithuania]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::