NIda 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.