Joniškis (; Samogitian: ''Juonėškis''; ) is a city in northern

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

with a population of about 9,900. It is located 39 kilometers north of

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

and 14 kilometers south of the Lithuania–

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

border. Joniškis is the municipal and administrative centre of

Joniškis district municipality Joniškis (; Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Juonėškis''; ) is a city in northern Lithuania with a population of about 9,900. It is located 39 kilometers north of Šiauliai and 14 kilometers south of the Lithuania–Latvia border. Joniškis i ...

Name

Joniškis is the Lithuanian name of the town. Historical versions of the name in other languages include

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

: ''Janiszki'',

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Янишки ''Yanishki'',

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

: יאַנישאָק ''Yanishok'', Latvian: ''Jānišķe'', and German: ''Jonischken''.

History

Joniškis was established in the beginning of the 16th century. It was mentioned in written sources on 23 February 1536 when Bishops of Vilnius and

Samogitia Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...

visited the area and found that people still practiced the old pagan faith. People were worshiping the God of Thunder (

Perkūnas Perkūnas (, , Old Prussian: ''Perkūns'', ''Perkunos'', Sudovian language, Yotvingian: ''Parkuns'', Latgalian language, Latgalian: ''Pārkiuņs'') was the common Baltic languages, Baltic List of thunder gods, god of thunder, and the second m ...

), fire, snakes and other pagan deities. The bishop of Vilnius, John of the Lithuanian Dukes baptized the locals and established a new parish on 23 February 1536. A wooden church was built and the town of Joniškis was built around it. The bishop of Vilnius named the town Joniškis after his own name Jonas. Joniškis was on the crossroad of important trade roads. It was located in the

Duchy of Samogitia The Duchy of Samogitia (, , ) was an administrative unit of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1422 (and from 1569, a member country of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Between 1422 and 1441 it was known as the Eldership of Samogitia. Si ...

in the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

within the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. During World War II, the town was under Soviet occupation from 1940, and then under

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

from 1941 to 1944. In late 1941, 148 Jewish men were shot near Joniškis in the nearby forest. The remaining Jews (men, women and children) were murdered in the forest in September 1941. 493 people were murdered in total by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

of Joniškis policemen and Lithuanian nationalists supervised by the Germans.

Infrastructure

With the Church of the Accession of the Holy Virgin Mary (founded in 1901) and a complex of two Jewish synagogues – The Red Synagogue (built in 1897) and The White Synagogue (built in 1823) – at its center, the town has the status of an urban architectural heritage site. A

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

connecting

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

and

runs along the western boundary of the town. West of the railway are the town's allotment gardens, the Lutheran Cemetery and the Cemetery for the Victims of World War II. Joniškis has two water

reservoirs A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrup ...

formed by dams on the River Sidabra. Joniškis has the Jonas Avyžius Public Library of Joniškis District Municipality, the Basketball Museum and a large animal compound feed manufacturing plant "Joniškio Grūdai".

Climate

Joniškis has a warm-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfb'' in the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

Gallery

Joniškis, ženklas.JPG, Border mark Joniškis, savivaldybė.JPG, City municipality main building Joniškis, pėsčiųjų gatvė.JPG, Pedestrian street Joniškis, baltoji sinagoga.JPG, White Synagogue Joniskjis - panoramio - Laima Gūtmane (simka….jpg, Joniškis Synagogue Complex Joniškis, centras.JPG, Central street (former market square) Joniškis, centre.JPG, Reconstructed former market square Joniškis, Žagarės g.JPG, Old town Joniškis, kultūros centras.JPG, Joniškis Centre of Culture Joniškis, meno mokykla.JPG, Joniškis School of Arts Joniškis, krepšinio muziejus.JPG,

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

museum Joniškis,_teismas.JPG, Court

Notable people

Laurence Harvey Laurence Harvey (born Zvi Mosheh Skikne; 1 October 192825 November 1973) was a Lithuanian-born British actor and film director. He was born to Lithuanian Jewish parents and emigrated to Union of South Africa, South Africa at an early age, before ...

* Maksimas Katche * Charles Segal *

Andrius Šležas Andrius Šležas (born February 4, 1975) is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player and basketball coach. During his playing career, he was best known as a 3-point specialist. Professional playing career Šležas was named the Lithua ...

Adomas Varnas Adomas Varnas (January 1, 1879, in Joniškis, Lithuania – July 19, 1979, in Chicago, United States) was a prominent Lithuanian Painting, painter, photographer, collector, philanthropist, and educator. Author of the world first album of ethnogr ...

* Benas Veikalas

Twin towns – sister cities

Joniškis is twinned with: *

Auce Auce (; ; ) is a town in Dobele Municipality, in the Semigallia region of Latvia. It is situated near the Lithuanian border. History Before the 13th century, the territory of Auce was a part of a Semigallians, Semigallian Spārnene county. Aft ...

, Latvia *

Dobele Dobele (; ) is a town in the Semigallia region of Latvia. It is located near the center of Latvia on the banks of the river Bērze. It received town rights in 1917 whilst being a part of the German occupied Courland Governorate during the First ...

, Latvia *

Jelgava Municipality Jelgava Municipality () is a Administrative divisions of Latvia, municipality in Zemgale, Latvia. Its administrative center is Jelgava, although it is extraterritorial as the city is a separate municipality of its own. The municipality was formed ...

, Latvia *

Konin Konin () is a city in central Poland, on the Warta River. It is the capital of Konin County and is located within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. In 2021 the population of the city was 71,427, making it the fourth-largest city in Greater Poland af ...

, Poland * Novoselitsky District, Russia *

Sulingen Sulingen is a town in the district of Diepholz, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximatively 30 km east of Diepholz, and 45 km south of Bremen. Sister cities * Joniškis, Lithuania People from Sulingen * Walter Momper (bo ...

, Germany *

Ungheni Ungheni () is a municipality in Moldova. With a population of 35,157, it is the seventh largest town in Moldova and the seat of Ungheni District. There is a bridge across the Prut and a List of Moldova–Romania border crossings, border chec ...

, Moldova *

Vimmerby Vimmerby () is a city and the seat of Vimmerby Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 10,934 inhabitants in 2010. Overview Stångån is a small river running through the city. Vimmerby had its charter as early as the fourteenth century. The ...

, Sweden *

Võru Võru (; ; ) is a town and a municipality in south-eastern Estonia. It is the capital of Võru County and the centre of Võru Parish. History Võru was founded on 21 August 1784, at the request of the Empress Catherine II of Russia, by the o ...

, Estonia

References

External links

Official site

The murder of the Jews of Joniškis
during World War II, at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...

website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Joniskis Cities in Šiauliai County Cities in Lithuania Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania Holocaust locations in Lithuania Joniškis District Municipality