Birštonas

City

Coat of arms

Birštonas

Location of Birštonas

Coordinates: 54°36′10″N 24°1′14.0″E / 54.60278°N 24.020556°ECoordinates: 54°36′10″N 24°1′14.0″E / 54.60278°N 24.020556°E

Lithuania

Birštonas municipality

Capital of

Birštonas municipality

First mentioned

1382

Granted city rights

1529

Population (2005)

• Total

3,138

Time zone

EET (UTC+2)

• Summer (DST)

EEST (UTC+3)

Birštonas ( pronunciation ) is a balneological resort and a spa town in Lithuania situated 30 km (19 mi) south of Kaunas on the right bank of the Nemunas River. Birštonas received its city rights 1529, and was appointed a city in 1966. The city is the administrative centre of the Birštonas municipality.

Birštonas is the Lithuanian name of the city. Versions of the name in other languages include Polish: Birsztany, Russian: Бирштаны Birshtany, Belarusian: Біршта́ны Birshtany, Yiddish: בירשטאן Birshtan.

Birštonas was mentioned for the first time in the fourteenth century as a "homestead at salty water." It was mentioned in chronicles of the Teutonic Knights in 1382 and described as "a farmstead at the salty water". Many Lithuanian dukes and other noblemen vacationed in Birštonas during 14th and 16th centuries to hunt. The resort was founded in 1846. Many people from Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian cities visited sanitoriums for the area's mineral water and to receive curative mud applications, including Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga, who was ill after the Stutthof concentration camp.

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Wikipedia