Lazdynai () is an eldership of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

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 ...

, situated on the right bank of the Neris River. It covers a area of and has a population of 31,097 (according to the 2011 census). The word means "

hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...

bushes" in Lithuanian.

History

Since the 1950s, the

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

experienced fast population growth and faced housing shortages. When Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

put forth his program of fast residential construction, based on prefabricated

panel building Panel may refer to: Arts and media Visual arts * Panel painting, in art, a painting on a wood panel (as opposed to canvas, a wall etc) * Panel (comics), a single image in a comic book, comic strip or cartoon; also, a comic strip containing on ...

s dubbed '' khrushchovkas'', it threatened the integrity of the well-preserved historical style of Vilnius. A group of architects struggled against the intrusion of ''khrushchovkas'' into the historical city center. Eventually they were awarded with the project to build a

satellite city A satellite city or satellite town is a smaller municipality or settlement that is part of (or on the edge of) a larger metropolitan area and serves as a regional population and employment center. It differs from mere suburbs, Subdivision (la ...

outside Vilnius. The chosen area was close to a Polish village of Leszczyniaki or Lazdynai in Lithuanian, situated southeast of old Vilnius.Both names, Leszczyniaki and Lazdynai apparently derive from the word for " hazelnut tree": Polish '' leszczyna'' and Lithuanian '' lazdynas''. In Polish the term ''leszczyniak'' (singular for "leszczyniaki") also means "a person from

Leszno Leszno (, , ) is a historic city in western Poland, seat of Leszno County within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Leszno is a former residential cit ...

or Leszno Voivodeship", see, e.g., the usag
here
. The architects decided to go against the Soviet architectural style and based their design on study of the architecture of

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Initially the authorities monitored the project with suspicion, but eventually it was accepted, and in 1974 the leading figures of the Lazdynai project (architects

Vytautas Čekanauskas Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas (13 May 1930, Šiauliai – 7 July 2010, Vilnius) was a 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 t ...

, , , and Gediminas Valiuškis and engineers and Vincentas Šileika) were awarded the

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

in architecture.Becker, Sven (November 23, 2005)
"The architectural battleground for Lithuanian independence"
The Baltic Times

Notes

References

{{Vilnius elderates Neighbourhoods of Vilnius

History

See also

Notes

References