Graži vieta, Vilniaus apskritis
Paulavos Republic was a self-governing peasant community established in 1769 by the priest and statesman Povilas Ksaveras Bžostovskis on his manor by the Merkys River, in what is now Merkinė village, Šalčininkai district, and it lasted until 1795. Covering the manor's 34 peasant farms plus the Turgeliai palivarkas, roughly 1,640 hectares, it had its own constitution, coat of arms, currency, two-chamber parliament, treasury, court, militia, and school; by 1786 Bžostovskis had replaced corvée labor entirely with monetary rent. Visitors today can still see the manor's palace ruins, an ice house, the old administrative building, stables, and gate pillars.