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History
- Grobstas Horn for the first time was mentioned in 1366. There is a suggestion
that it was the very first settlement on the Spit. Locations named Noyken or Noyden
were described in the Teutonic chronicles in 385. Though it sounds like Nida,
this hypothesis was rejected recently.
- True facts about Nida appeared in 1429 and 1437, when the Nida Inn was mentioned.
The village was located not far from the sea, about 2-km south from present Nida.
The innkeeper received privileges from the Magdeburg Rights in 1529. The innkeeper
and 18 fishermen families, 3 part-time fishermen and one lodger family lived in
Nida in 1541. And then sand attacks started. Due to this reason fewer and fewer
families stayed in Nida. Twenty-two occupied farmsteads were in Nida from 1542
until 1554. Only 9 of them were left in 1588. The innkeeper, 5 fishermen families
and tree lodger families lived in Nida in 1589 and 1590. Soon sand covered all
arable land. Only the innkeeper and 8 fishermen remained in the village in 1595.
The plague came to Nida in 1603 and devastated it till 1606. People finally deserted
this settlement. Only the innkeeper and two fishermen families were recorded in
1614. Sand buried the other 22 huts. The village consisted of some 3 or 5 farmsteads
from 1619 until 1712. In the period between 1673 and 1676 the old Nida settlement
was totally buried under the sand. People moved to the new place closer to the
lagoon, about 500 metres from the Death Valley. In the beginning of the 18th century
sand covered this place also.
- About 1732 some inhabitants of old Nida moved to the new place, where present
Nida is located. Here was the post station (brought from Kuncai that was also
buried by sand) and school (opened in 1743). The number of inhabitants started
to grow.
- Fifteen "live" farmsteads were described in 1784. But the permanent
forest clearing and cattle grazing caused further sand invasion. Sand became Nida's
silent enemy again. Some Nida citizens running from sand moved to the north and
established Skruzdyne settlement. In the beginning of the 19th century two owners
of the Nida post station, father and son Gotlib David and Georg David Kuwerts,
started resistance to the sand. They constructed barriers and planted trees along
the post road and near the village. Thanks to them, Nida didn't have to move another
time.
- The number of inhabitants reached 232 in 1820. Thirty-one farmsteads were
occupied in Nida in 1825. The post station and the new school building were there
also. Five families from the buried Naujieji Nagliai village established the Purvyne
settlement next to Nida in 1830. Number of inhabitants gives the best reflection
of growth of Nida: 235 inhabitants in 1830, 355 - in 1846, 515 - in 1871, 701
- in 1895 and 803 - in 1905.
- The prayer house was set up in the building of the former post station in
1835.
Nida parish was approved in 1849.
A large fire devastated Nida in 1869 - 29 homesteads burned. Only the church and
school building remained.
The Nida lighthouse was erected on the forested Urbas Hill in 1874. When the old
wooden church building deteriorated, by the initiative of preacher and support
of the local community the new Neogothic red brick church was constructed in Nida
in 1888.
The new school opened in 1925. In 1933 Nida obtained the city rights. The same
year the gliding school started operating. A military resort was opened in 1935.
Before 1945, Nida settlement was divided into Skruzdine (Skruzdin), Purvyne (Purwin),
Ragas - Inkaras at the harbour (Haken oder Ancker) and main Nida village (Hauptdorf)
that extended from Jurate Hotel to the church. Remains of these old parts can
be seen today in the present Nida street network.
Vacationers and holidaymakers discovered Nida as a destination site in the second
half of the 19th century. Many new hotels, restaurants and guesthouses were built
in Nida in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Seeking to
meet tourist needs, many native citizens of Nida rebuilt their houses.
Nida from the bird's flight |
1650 inhabitants live in Nida today. The headquarters of Neringa local government
are located there.
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Nida
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