page_title: Kražiai
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kražiai / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Kražiai collegium Lietuvių: Kražių kolegija
context_page_description: Kražiai is a historic town in Lithuania, located in the Kelmė district municipality, between Varniai and Raseiniai, on the Kražantė River. The old town of Kražiai is an archeological and urban monument.
context_section_description: The population in 1959 was 998; ca. 2,000 in 1939; 1,761 in 1897. The town has a secondary school and is a rural community centre. Under the prewar Republic of Lithuania, Kražiai was the township seat of the county of Raseiniai. After World War II it was assigned to the Soviet administrative district of Kelmė.
  Kražiai is one of the older settlements in Samogitia. Many barrow graves and fortress hills are located in its vicinity. The name of the locality is first mentioned (as Crase) in a 1257 document of King Mindaugas, by which a part of Samogitia was assigned to the Teutonic Order. Vytautas the Great during his first years of rule ceded Samogitia to the Order; the regent he appointed lived in Kražiai. After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, when Samogitia regained its freedom, Kražiai became the district centre. In the 15th century Kražiai was the christening centre of Samogitia. 
  The English Protestant, Catherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, and her husband Richard Bertie, exiled during the reign of the staunchly Catholic Queen Mary I of England, resided for some years in Kražiai as administrators on behalf of King Sigismund II Augustus. 
  In the 17th century Kražiai became one of the Catholic centres of the country. There were several monasteries, and the Jesuits established Kražiai College.
  With the transfer of the gymnasium to Kovno in 1848, and owing to a devastating fire the following year, the town lost its importance. After the construction of the Libau–Romny Railway in 1880, it became still poorer, and many families emigrated to the United States, Africa, and Australia.
  Today, the town is remembered in Lithuania as the site of the Kražiai Massacre of 1893. As part of its Russification campaign, the Russian government decided to tear down the local Catholic monastery church. After petitions to save the church were rejected, people began to gather at the church to prevent the removal of sacred objects. This alarmed Kaunas Governor Nikolai Klingenberg, who led a force of police and Don Cossacks that invaded the church and brutally drove out the people. Afterwards, a number of Catholics were publicly flogged and about 71 were brought to trial. These events were exploited in anti-Russian and anti-Tsarist propaganda that enhanced the development of Lithuanian national consciousness.
caption: Kražiai College, established in 1616
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