Grigiškės (; pl, Grzegorzewo) is a town in the
Vilnius city municipality,
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
. It is an industrial town with
AB Grigiškės, a major paper factory built in 1923. Grigiškės is situated on both banks of the
Vokė river, south from the river
Neris
The river Neris () or Viliya ( be, Ві́лія, pl, Wilia ) rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius (Lithuania's capital) and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman), at Kaunas, a ...
.
History
Mounds from the 5th to 10th centuries show that the surrounding lands have been inhabited for a long time. Kunigiškės, Kauno Vokė and Salos-Afindevičiai villages were there, with the modern Grigiškės settlement being founded only in the 20th century.
The name in 1923 was given by
Grzegorz Kurec, an industrialist of
Belarusian origin, who built a paper and cardboard factory and a water power plant with a unique Grigiškės water
aqueduct.
In the aftermath of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the factory was expanded, with many new workplaces being created. The town grew rapidly mainly due to the migration of
Belarusian workers from
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
as well as
Lithuanian deportees returning from
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
, who were prohibited to live in
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urba ...
, settled here. In the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
era, Grigiškės factory also manufactured
fiberboards.
On 15 May 1958, Grigiškės became an
urban-type settlement
Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...
and the first Lithuanian schools were established. In 1968, a library was built. On 10 December 1996, by the decree of the Lithuanian president, the Grigiškės coat-of-arms was finally validated. Since 19 March 2000 (official since 21 December 1999), Grigiškės has been part of the
Vilnius city municipality.
References
External links
Map of Grigiškės
Cities in Lithuania
Cities in Vilnius County
Vilnius City Municipality
{{VilniusCounty-geo-stub