History
Neringa belonged to the former south-curonian landscapes Pilsaten and Lamotina.
Since 1252 the region was under the rule of various German governments, starting with the Teutonic Knights and later Prussia and Germany. Already in 1569 a "confusion of languages" was noticed: German, Lithuanian, Latvian-Curonian (Nehrungs-Kurisch) and Prussian. Nehrungs-kurisch was the language of the fishers.
The colours of the typical houses are handed down from the pagan religion and symbolize Divinities: Earth (brown), Sky and Water (blue), Clouds and Spray (white). At the top two crossed "zirgs" (horse heads).
The plebiscite of 1897 showed that about 60% used the Curonian language, on sea even 65%. In 1923, when sovereignty over the spit came to Lithuania, the inhabitants had problems with their nationality. Only few optated for Lithuania, many emigrated to Germany and others stayed as German "resident foreigners" in their villages. The result of the plebiscite of 1956: 59% Lithuanians, 21% Russians and only 15% (22 families) of the autochtone inhabitants.
Read more about this topic: Neringa Municipality
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“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)