Šiaulių žemė Viduramžiais. Sunaikintų pilių lokalizacijos problemos
The land of Siauliai in the middle ages. Problems of Localizing Extinct Castles

Summary/Abstract: In the present article the localization problems of the Šiauliai Land castles, destroyed during the crusade of the Livonia Order on 9 March, 1348, are discussed. It is noted that in the 3rd–6th decades of the 14th century systems of castles were established not only in Livonia (castles of Mežuotnė (1321), Duobelė (1335), Tervetė (1339), but also in the North Lithuania. In the middle of the 14th century, episodes of “the war for the castles” (the campaign of Algirdas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in Livonia in 1345; the crusades of the Livonia Order to the Lands of Papilė and Šiauliai in 1348, 1358, and 1359) in this region revealed not only the significance and failings of these defence systems, but also temporary changes in the war strategy. The analysis of the second crusade route of the Livonia Order and the toponymy data of the written narrative sources [...]

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