Coat of arms Flag Federal subject Kaliningrad Oblast Town of district significance Pravdinsk Local time Sunday 1:32 AM | Country Russia Administrative district Pravdinsky District Area 10 km² | |
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Administrative center of Pravdinsky District, town of district significance of Pravdinsk Weather 2°C, Wind N at 11 km/h, 85% Humidity Points of interest Vodonapornaya bashnya Fridlanda | ||
Pravdinsk (Russian: Пра́вдинск ), prior to 1946 known by its German name Friedland (Lithuanian: Romuva; Polish: Frydląd) is a town and the administrative center of Pravdinsky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Lava River, approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) east of Bagrationovsk and 53 kilometers (33 mi) southeast of Kaliningrad, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 4,323 (2010 Census); 4,480 (2002 Census); 4,143 (1989 Census).
Contents
- Map of Pravdinsk Kaliningradskaya Oblast Russia 238400
- History
- Administrative and municipal status
- Religion
- International relations
- References
Map of Pravdinsk, Kaliningradskaya Oblast, Russia, 238400
History
It was founded in 1312 at a ford across the Lava River after the local Natangian tribe in Prussia was subdued by the Teutonic Knights. It received town privileges in 1335 under Grand Master Luther von Braunschweig. The town was devastated during the Thirteen Years' War between the Order and the Prussian Confederation. Known then by its German name Friedland ("peaceful land"), the town became a part of the Duchy of Prussia after the secularization of the Order-State in 1525. Under the ruling Hohenzollern dynasty, Friedland became a part of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1618 and was again ravaged by Swedish troops in the course of the Second Northern War 1655-1660.
Friedland belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701; on June 14, 1807, Napoleon's French army won the nearby Battle of Friedland against a combined Russian-Prussian army. The town became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany.
Conquered by the Red Army on January 31, 1945, the town (which belonged to Landkreis Bartenstein in the Province of East Prussia) was transferred from Germany to the Soviet Union according to the 1945 Potsdam Agreement and the German population was expelled. The town was renamed Pravdinsk in 1946.
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Pravdinsk serves as the administrative center of Pravdinsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with thirty-two rural localities, incorporated within Pravdinsky District as the town of district significance of Pravdinsk.
Within the framework of municipal divisions, since May 5, 2015, the territories of the town of district significance of Pravdinsk, the urban-type settlement of district significance of Zheleznodorozhny, and of two rural okrugs of Pravdinsky District are incorporated as Pravdinsky Urban Okrug. Before that, the town of district significance was incorporated within Pravdinsky Municipal District as Pravdinskoye Urban Settlement.
Religion
The Late Gothic church of St. George in the town center is well preserved and today used by the Moscow Patriarchate.
Pravdinsk is identified in some historical accounts with Romuva, said to be the center of Baltic paganism. The Lithuanian name for Pravdinsk is "Romuva", and this was most likely its name in Old Prussian as well. Whether Romuva was in fact associated with Baltic paganism is disputed, however. Some have suggested that this belief started when early Christian chroniclers were confused by the similarity between "Romuva" and "Rome", and by their own unwarranted assumption that Baltic paganism should resemble Roman paganism in being focused around a particular geographical center.
International relations
Pravdinsk is part of the Friedliches Land (Peaceful Land) municipal association with: