Ashmyany or Oshmyany (; ; ; ; ) is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus. It is located from Vilnius in Lithuania. The town serves as the administrative center of Ashmyany District. It lies in Ashmyanka's river basin.
The town was the birthplace of the general Lucjan Żeligowski and Jewish Soviet partisan Abba Kovner.
Name
Since time immemorial, Ašmena and its surroundings were ethnic Lithuanian territory. However, many of the indigenous inhabitants died out during the wars, famine and plague in the late 17th and the early 18th centuries, and the number of Slavic colonists grew. Lithuanians were slavicized along the Minsk-Ašmena-Vilnius axis, and by the mid-19th century, the numbers of Lithuanian-speakers had severely decreased.
Presently, its Lithuanian past is sealed in the towns's name, which is of Lithuanian origin. The town's name is derived from the name of the Ašmena (modern Ashmyanka River), itself derived from the Lithuanian word akmuo (stone). The link between consonants š and k is old and present in the Lithuanian words, respectively ašmuo (sharp blade) and akmuo (stone). The present name Ashmyany uses the plural form of the name and is a modern invention. Through the ancient town's history, its name was recorded in the Lithuanian singular form.
History
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
14th century
Ašmena is mentioned first as a town in the Duchy of Vilnius in the 1350s. The first reliable mention of Ašmena is in the Lithuanian Chronicles, which tells that after Gediminas' death in 1341, Jaunutis inherited the town. In 1384, the Teutonic Order attacked and destroyed the town with the goal of destroying Jogaila's hereditary state. The Teutons recorded the town as "Aschemynne". The Teutons managed to destroy the town, but it quickly recovered. By 1384, there is a manor of the Grand Duke of Lithuania in Ašmena. The Roman Catholic was built after 1387. This church was one of the first in the whole of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The church was administrated by the Franciscans.
15th century
In 1402, the Teutons attacked once more, but were bloodily repelled, so the Teutons withdrew to Medininkai. In 1413, the town became one of the most notable trade and commerce centres within the Vilnius Voivodship. Hence, in 1432 Ashmyany became the site of an important battle between the royal forces of Jogaila under Žygimantas Kęstutaitis and the forces of Švitrigaila, who was allied with the Teutonic Order. After the town was taken by the royalists, it became the private property of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and started to develop rapidly.
Hanseatic trade routes passed through the town in the 15th century. On 1 September 1432, Švitrigaila was deposed from the throne in Ašmena. On 8 December 1432, Ašmena was the site of the Battle of Ašmena between Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis. There was a residential palace in Ašmena from the early 15th century to the end of the 18th century.
16th century
The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven burnt down in 1505, but was rebuilt. The Muscovite army destroyed and burnt Ašmena to the ground in 1519, during the Fourth Lithuanian–Muscovite War. The town was granted the Magdeburg rights in the 16th century. From 1566, Ašmena was the centre of the .
Ashmyany did not recover as quickly as previously after 1519, and in 1537 the town was granted several royal privileges to facilitate its reconstruction. In 1566, the town finally received Magdeburg rights, which were confirmed in 1683 (along with the privileges for the local merchants and burghers) by King John III Sobieski. In the 16th century the town was one of the most notable centers of Calvinism in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, after Mikołaj "the Red" Radziwiłł founded a college and a church there.
17th century
The Muscovite army occupied Ašmena in 1655. Due to the widespread destruction and impoverishment during the Deluge, the town was exempt from taxes in 1655, 1661 and 1667. In 1667, the Dominican Order was built.
18th century
In 1792, King Stanisław August Poniatowski confirmed all previous privileges and the fact, that Oszmiany, as it was then called, was a free city, subordinate only to the king and the local city council. With this, the town received its first ever Coat of arms. Composed of three fields, it featured a shield, a hand holding scales and the bull from Ciołek coat of arms, the monarch's personal coat of arms.