Norgėlai Hillfort

To visit the Norgėlai Hillfort, you need to prepare for a long journey, as it is far from the main roads. You can access it from the Stančaičiai-Mataičiai gravel road, following the signs. Depending on the time of year, the hillfort located at the confluence of the Šalpalė and Vytautas Streams may be reached by country roads or on foot. Apparently, the name of the Vytautas Stream gave rise to legends that Vytautas the Great himself had set up camp on the hillfort when fighting the Crusaders. However, whether this actually happened is not clear because the hillfort itself has not been explored, and the data from amateur excavations carried out in the 19th century are unreliable. It is difficult to even establish to which of the Baltic tribes it should be attributed, as the hillfort stands in a sparsely populated area between the territories of Samogitia and the Curonian Spit and was abandoned by its inhabitants in 1909. The old burial site of the 2nd–11th centuries explored by Vladas Nagevičius (1881–1954) seems to indicate that the hillfort was once used. However, its top site is small, triangular and just 36 metres long and 26 metres wide, with a considerable 4-metre-high bank. The 6-metre-high outer slope of the hillfort descends into a ditch, behind which a second, smaller bank was created. All of this indicates that there was a wooden castle on the hillfort and that the search for the old settlement should take place next to it.