Lentvaris (; ) is a city in eastern

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 ...

, 9 km east of

Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...

. It is a transportation hub, as several road and rail routes cross here. Lake Lentvaris is nearby.

History

The town is situated in ethnographically Baltic Lithuanian territory and was historically a territory of

Lithuania Proper Lithuania proper refers to a region that existed within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where the Lithuanian language was spoken. The primary meaning is identical to the Duchy of Lithuania, a land around which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania evolved. T ...

situated close to a capital city Vilnius. In the 19th century the

Polonization Polonization or Polonisation ()In Polish historiography, particularly pre-WWII (e.g., L. Wasilewski. As noted in Смалянчук А. Ф. (Smalyanchuk 2001) Паміж краёвасцю і нацыянальнай ідэяй. Польскі ...

of Eastern Lithuania started thus the city started to become multilingual. In the 18th Century, the city of Lentvaris, was 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 ...

. It was populated by Poles, Lithuanians and Jews and belonged to the estate of the Polish-Lithuanian House of Sapieha. Following the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the town became part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. In 1850 the town was owned by Izdebski and then sold on to another Polish-Lithuanian

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

clan, the Tiškevičiai family. In 1885 they had a Tudor-style palace built with a park, designed by Édouard André. In 1869 an industrial nail factory was established in the city. After the Żeligowski's Mutiny in 1920, Lentvaris was annexed by Poland and was part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in the Wilno–Troki District of the Wilno Voivodeship. In September 1939,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

attacked Poland simultaneously with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The town was taken over by the Soviets on September 19, 1939. Local Polish soldiers, who had fought in the September Campaign, were attacked and interned by Lithuanians in the city of Kretinga. Between 1942 and 1943, a Jewish partisan unit headed by Abba Kovner operated in the area. They blew up a train bound from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

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 ...

, near Lentvaris station, on the stretch between

and

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

. Twenty one carriages carrying German troops and supplies were derailed.

Demography

Population

According to the 2021 census, the city population was 9,713 people, of which: *

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

– 55.44% (5,385) *

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

– 25.64% (2,491) *

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

– 11.33% (1,101) *

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

– 3.30% (321) *

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

– 0.94% (92) * Others / did not specify – 3.24% (315)

Famous people

* Stefan Tyszkiewicz (1894–1976), last heir to the Tyszkiewicz estate of Landwarów, was a noted engineer and inventor. In the 1920s he was an early pioneer of the Polish automotive industry through his firm, Stetysz. His life was much interrupted by wars, but he never ceased to apply his technical skills. After his arrest in

by the Soviets during World War II, he was imprisoned in Lubianka Prison, then released to join Anders' Army and its great exodus through the Middle East to Italy. After the war he remained an exile until his death in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. * In 1932, a wedding between Rebbetzin Shaina, daughter of Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Horenstein, the Rebbe's cousin, was held in the town. * Teresa Żylis-Gara, the 20th century soprano singer was born in Lentvaris. In 2004 she founded a

Pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

in the Polish

Roman-Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church pw. Zwiastowania NMP in the city. Teresa Żylis-Gara in Landwarów, including photographs
/ref>

References

*

* Alwida Antonina Bajor

History

Demography

Population

Famous people

References

See also