Bubiai Mound

Bubiai Mound, also called Pilalė, played an important role in the battles against the crusaders. One of the strongest castles of Šiauliai land stood there in the 13th century. The Dubysa Castle (Dobitzen, in German), at various times mentioned in German chronicles, could have been built on Bubiai Mound sometime before 1230‘s. Builders of the castle heightened the mound and by means of a canal separated it from the hill on which a settlement was established. As the story goes, people walking past the mound had to deliver four gorčius (2,82 or 3 l) of sand, and those on horseback as much as five. If anyone wanted to have a holy fire burnt on the mound, also had to leave his offerings here.

Bubiai Mound stands on an elevation of the headland, on the left shore of the river Dubysa. Slopes of the mound are rather steep, around 14 m high. Site on the top is oval, around 80 m long and 35 m wide. A site of aprroximately 35 m long in the southeast part, where used to be a tower and gate of the castle, is heightened a little more, namely by 4,5 m. The mound was surrounded by the river valley from three sides, and was protected by the river swamps from the western part.

In summer of 1236, Dubysa Castle was unsuccessfully attempted to occupy by the Brothers of the Sword defeated in the Battle of Saulė. Thanks to resistance of the community, Bulionis dukes managed to overtake and to finally kill the enemy at the river Mūša. In 1348, Dubysa Castle was burnt down by the large armed forces of the Order. Soon after, the castle was rebuilt; however it burnt down again during attacks in 1358. In the Livonian Chronicles it is mentioned that 100 defenders and 2 brothers of the Order lost their lives during the last storm of the castle.

In 1973, when the river Dubysa was embanked, the shore of Šiaulių jūra almost reached the slopes of Bubiai Mound; despite this, it has been preserved. Before 1996, the Mound was densely overgrown, its shape was beyond eyeshot.