Voruta

Voruta may have been the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Lithuania during the reign of king Mindaugas in the 13th century. Voruta is mentioned briefly only once in written sources and its exact location is unknown. Despite all the uncertainties, the concept of Voruta is well-known and popular in the Lithuanian imagination.

Historiography

Mindaugas, the first and the only crowned Lithuanian king, defended himself in Voruta during an internal war against his nephews Tautvilas and Edivydas and Duke of Samogitia Vykintas in 1251. This information, taken from the Hypatian Chronicle, is the only recorded message about Voruta. A castle of Mindaugas was mentioned on two more occasions, but neither its name nor location was specified. It is unclear whether these brief mentions referred to the same location.

Nevertheless, some historians in 19th and 20th centuries called it "the first capital of Lithuania" and attempted to identify its location. In total there were about fourteen suggested locations of Voruta. Others argue that Voruta was not an actual city, but just a misinterpretation of a word that means capital. In opinion of Kazimieras Būga, one of the prominent Lithuanian philologists, the word voruta simply means castle.

Voruta (disambiguation)

Voruta may refer to:

Voruta (newspaper)

Voruta is a Lithuanian weekly historical newspaper, founded in 1989 by Juozas Vercinkevičius.

Preparations for publishing Voruta started in 1988 and first trial issue was published in 1989. Edvardas Gudavičius, Regina Žepkaitė, Antanas Tyla, Arūnas Bubnys, Vincas Martinkėnas, Zigmas Zinkevičius, Nastazija Kairiūkštytė, Stasys Buchaveckas, Kęstutis Makariūnas, Antanas Suraučius, Juozas Vaina, Kazimieras Garšva, Evaldas Gečiauskas among other authors published their works in Voruta.

Newspaper is named after Voruta, a mythical capital of the Lithuania established in the time of king Mindaugas in the 13th century.

Criticism

The newspaper has been noted for leaning towards nationalistic and anti-Polish bias, particularly in the early 1990s, but later its tone changed to a more neutral one.

Its past editors included leader of anti-Polish, nationalistic organization Vilnija, Kazimieras Garšva.

References

External links