Klaipeda District Tourism Information Center

Žvaginiai Hillfort

Mounds

Contact us

Address:

The Žvaginiai Hillfort is situated on the eastern edge of the district. It is accessible and easy to find, as it is located on top of the highest (148.3 metres above sea level and 15 metres high from the foot) hill in the area. An asphalt road leads towards it from Endriejavas via Žadeikiai. The road was built there in 1972 due to the erection of the Ablinga memorial at the southern foot of the hillfort to commemorate the 42 inhabitants of Ablinga who were shot by the Germans on 23 June 1941. The innocent victims of the initial stages of the war, whose bodies rest in the cemetery on the southern slope of the hillfort, are hallowed by 30 wooden sculptures carved by folk artists, which were renovated in 2012. Although the village of Ablinga (Amelinge) has retained the old name of the place, which was mentioned in the deed of the division of Curonian lands of 1253, time has changed everything else. In the 18th and 19th centuries, in the east-west direction, on the elongated 40-metre-long and 20–45-metre-wide trapezoidal top site of the hill, a cemetery was established. The fact that the hill is a hillfort is evidenced only by the remains of the up to 1.8-metre-high bank on its eastern edge and a more than 1.3-metre-thick cultural layer containing fired ceramics and charred matter, which were discovered in 1972 by Mykolas Černiauskas (1912–2002). The charred matter had also been found there earlier, which gave rise to legends about a sacred fire burning on the hillfort. Or was it really burning there?

Reviews

Comment