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 German Telsiai District
Zemaites str. 14 |
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Situated in north-west Lithuania, Telsiai is the capital of Samogitia and the administrative centre of the Telsiai district, as well as being the Catholic centre of Samogitia. The town stands on seven hills. Legend tells that its name originates from a small river called the Telse, whose waters nowadays flow deeply beneath the town. Archaeology reveals that the oldest traces of the town date back to the Stone Age, but the first mention of Telsiai in historical sources dates from 1450. The town was founded and developed around the royal estate of Telsiai. The first church was built in 1536, when a parish school was opened. In 1624, Povilas Sapiega, the sovereign of the land of Telsiai, invited Bernardine monks to the place and built a monastery for them. A second church was built in 1650. Telsiai suffered greatly from the Nordic war in 1700-21. It was granted the status of a market town in 1721, and in 1764 it became the governmental centre of the northern part of the Samogitian Duchy. The law-court was held in the castle, and there the noblemen held their seimas (parliament). A beautiful new church was built in 1765, in Late Baroque style with classical influence. (This was to become the cathedral in 1926). A three-year school was founded in 1793; later it offered six years of education. On 6th December 1791, king Stanislovas Augustas granted Telsiai Magdeburg rights and a coat of arms. In 1795, the Polish-Lithuanian union and parliamentary monarchy of Zecpospolita fell apart and Russia established its power throughout most of Lithuania. In the second part of the 19th century, Telsiai had not only its two Catholic churches, but also an Evangelical Lutheran church, an Orthodox church and a Jewish synagogue with a world-famous rabbinical school called Jesiva (1873). The town had a pharmacy, a hospital, a post office and some larger enterprises. Telsiai became a district town when Lithuania gained independence in 1918. Church provinces were established in 1926, and Telsiai became a bishop's residence. In a short time, streets were improved and stylish buildings started to appear: the seminary (1928), the bishop's palace (1929), the crafts school (1931), the "Mastis" factory (1931) the electric power station (1933) the Bishop M. Valanciaus modern gymnasium (1936), the "Alkos" Samogitian museum (1936) and the cubist St Nicholas Orthodox Church (1937). The town also had a theatre and some newspapers. In 1940, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, and imprisonments and mass deportations to Siberia began. These were the brutal instruments of a policy designed to crush national resistance and establish the new regime. At the beginning of World War II, on the night of 24th June 1941, Soviet troops retreating from Hitler's army took 74 Lithuanian "political" prisoners from Telsiai into a forest in nearby Rainiai, where they were all brutally tortured and killed. The Rainiai martyrs became a symbol of the whole epoch of Bolshevism in Lithuania (1940-90). During the time of Nazi rule in Lithuania, most of the Jews of Telsiai were killed. After World War II, Lithuania was made part of the Soviet Union, and it was not until the late 1960's that life seemed to return to Telsiai. A children's music and art school was opened in 1955, followed by the Telsiai amateur theatre in 1959, which has since become the Zemaites Drama Theatre and the Higher School of Applied Arts in 1959. The Samogitia Country Life Museum was founded in 1967, and the School of Culture in 1975. Industry includes a fruit- and vegetable-canning factory founded in 1951 and a bakery which started production in 1955. The "Mastis" knitwear factory was enlarged and opened a gloves branch in 1958. A factory for ferro-concrete structures and parts opened in 1960, a factory producing calculating machines in 1962 and a cheese factory Ñ today AB Zemaitijos Pienas Ñ in 1984. When the country regained independence in 1991, the seminary was reopened and the bishop returned to his residence and diocese. Construction of a new wing of the Alkos Museum was begun, and the memorial to the Rainiai Martyrs and the mass graves of the Jewish victims of Nazism once again became places of reverence. In 1995 the town opened its eighth secondary school and an exhibition hall. A new era began for business in private hands; new enterprises appeared and private farming started up again. The old part of Telsiai is a national monument of urban culture comprising 74 places of particular interest, of which 36 are architectural monuments. Today, the territory of the town covers about 1647 ha, and the population is just over 35,000. Telsiai is the home town of many professional painters, folk artists, musical folklore groups and amateur cultural clubs.
Telsiai District Municipality
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 A panorama of the town.
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