Žirmūnai
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| Location: |
VilniusVilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
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| Coordinates: |
54°41′56"N 25°18′10"E (Tuskulėnai Manor Tuskulėnai Manor is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.-Structures:The Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, by the order of the...
) |
| Area: |
5.7 km² |
| Elevation: |
119 metres |
| Population: |
47,410 (2001 census) |
| Density: |
8,317.5/km² |
| Elder: |
Ona Suncovienė |
| Established: |
Late 14th century; 1960s (modern) |
Žirmūnai (ʒirˈmuːnɐi) , is the most populous
administrative divisionAn administrative division, subnational entity, or country subdivision is a portion of a country or other political division, established for the purpose of government. Administrative divisions are each granted a certain degree of autonomy, and are required to manage themselves through their own...
(elderate) in
VilniusVilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
. It is also a neighbourhood in the
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n capital city
VilniusVilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
, encompassing the city district of the same name, built in the 1960s.
Žirmūnai's history has been traced to the late 14th century, when a
LithuanianLithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
fishing
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
was founded across the
River NerisNeris is a river rising in Belarus, flowing through Vilnius and becoming a tributary of the Neman River at Kaunas...
from
Vilnius' Old TownThe Old Town of Vilnius , one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe, has an area of 3.59 square kilometres . It encompasses 74 quarters, with 70 streets and lanes numbering 1487 buildings with a total floor area of 1,497,000 square meters...
. Several historic sites in Žirmūnai are internationally significant; it is the home of Lithuania's largest Jewish cemetery, as well as the location of
mass graveA mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
s of soldiers belonging to Napoleon's
Grande ArméeThe Grande Armée first entered the annals of history when, in 1805, Napoleon I renamed the army that he had assembled on the French coast of the English Channel for the proposed invasion of Britain...
and victims of the NKGB's and
MGB'sThe Ministry of State Security was the name of Soviet secret police from 1946 to 1953.-Origins of the MGB:The MGB was just one of many incarnations of the Soviet State Security apparatus. Since the revolution, the Bolsheviks relied on a strong political police or security force to support and...
executions after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Tuskulėnai ManorTuskulėnai Manor is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.-Structures:The Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, by the order of the...
, built in 1825, and the surrounding
Peace ParkPeace Park may refer to:*Peace park, another name for a transboundary protected area*Santiphap Park, Bangkok, also known as Peace Park*Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, a park in Hiroshima, Japan dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to be nuclear bombed* Peace Park , a...
are important historical and cultural attractions in Vilnius.
The area was given the name Žirmūnai during the early 1960s, when it became the site of an award-winning residential construction project; it was the first
city districtMicrodistrict, or microraion , is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former Communist states...
in the
Lithuanian SSRThe Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
to be constructed applying
urban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
concepts established in the USSR at the time. The massive Palace of Concerts and Sports and
Žalgiris StadiumŽalgiris Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania. The stadium holds 15,029 and was being used by the first division 1 Lyga - REO Vilnius...
are other relics of Žirmūnai's Soviet history. Žirmūnai was important to the industrial sector in the USSR; since that time, this function has been replaced or supplanted by newer businesses, including some of Lithuania's leading companies.
Žirmūnai has undergone major renovation and development in the 21st century.
Šiaurės miestelis ("North Town") is an area of Žirmūnai that has rapidly evolved into one of the key business and residential districts of the city. This quarter was used by a number of regimes as a military
garrisonGarrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
, and internationally significant historical findings have been made in the area.
Geography
The Žirmūnai elderate occupies 5.7 km² or 1.4 % of the total area of the
municipality of VilniusThe Vilnius city municipality , is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It is in the southeastern part of country, in Vilnius County and consists of the city of Vilnius, the town of Grigiškės and some rural areas.- History :...
according to data used for the 2001 census. Žirmūnai is located north of central Vilnius, along the western bank of the
River NerisNeris is a river rising in Belarus, flowing through Vilnius and becoming a tributary of the Neman River at Kaunas...
, on a flat
plainIn geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...
which rises to the north. The elderate extends for about 4.4 kilometres from north to south, and is about 1.5 kilometres across at its widest point. The southernmost point of the Žirmūnai elderate is only some 450 metres from Vilnius' Cathedral Square, in the centre of the city. Žirmūnai is bordered by the elderates of
VerkiaiVerkiai is a northernmost eldership in Vilnius, Lithuania. Historically it was a separate settlement situated north of Vilnius but today it is a part of Vilnius city municipality. It occupies 5,565 ha and has 30,000 inhabitants...
in the north and
ŠnipiškėsŠnipiškės is a neighborhood in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Located on the north bank of the river Neris, it is the site of Vilnius' new business district. Several skyscrapers and the new Europa Tower business center have been erected since the turn of the millennium...
in the west, and is separated from
Vilnius' Old TownThe Old Town of Vilnius , one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe, has an area of 3.59 square kilometres . It encompasses 74 quarters, with 70 streets and lanes numbering 1487 buildings with a total floor area of 1,497,000 square meters...
and
AntakalnisAntakalnis is an eldership in the Vilnius city municipality, Lithuania. Antakalnis is one of the oldest historical suburbs of Vilnius City. It is located in the eastern section of Vilnius, along the right bank of the Neris River...
by the Neris. Žirmūnai's western boundary is defined by the following streets (from north to south): Verkių, Žvalgų, Kalvarijų, Žalgirio, and Rinktinės. The River Neris serves as Žirmūnai's northern, eastern and southern boundary. Žirmūnų Street is the district's main artery.
Despite the proximity of the city centre, the Žirmūnai bank of the River Neris is covered with a strip of dense deciduous forest that begins at the Žirmūnai Bridge and continues upstream (northeasterly). The forested strip is largely uninterrupted, with gaps near bridges. At the approximate centrepoint of the Žirmūnai shoreline, the forest surrounds a
backwaterA backwater is a part of a river in which there is little or no current. It refers either to a branch of a main river which lies alongside it and then rejoins it or to a body of water in a main river which is backed up by an obstruction such as the tide or a dam.-Alternative channel:If a river has...
, which had been used to park disused passenger ferries. The forest's northernmost section is part of a
botanicalBotany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
nature reserveA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
within
Verkiai Regional ParkVerkiai Regional Park is one of the Regional Parks in Lithuania. It is located almost entirely in Verkiai elderate of Vilnius municipality.The park was established in 1992 in order to protect natural complexes of the Green Lakes and cultural complexes of Verkiai Palace and a park, Kalvarijos and...
.
The Žirmūnai bank of the River Neris, from a point near Žirmūnai Bridge and continuing downstream, was stabilised during the 1980s with a steeply-sloped concrete net-like structure which includes patches of grass between the "webbing" of the net; the lower part of the fortification is a concrete tiled walkway, ending just over 4 kilometres downstream, beyond Liubartas Bridge in
ŽvėrynasŽvėrynas is one of the older neighborhoods and smallest elderships in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, about 12,000 people live within a 2.6 km² area. It lies on the banks of the Neris River, and is situated to the west of the Lithuanian Parliament building. The river surrounds it...
. The walkway is used extensively by walkers, joggers, and cyclists, as well as providing seating for
anglerAngling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
s. Construction vehicles sometimes use it to reach work areas. The walkway is submerged during the river floods, mostly in springtime.
Ethnicity
As of the census taken in April 2001, the ethnic makeup of Žirmūnai was 59.2%
LithuanianLithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,765,600 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language...
, 16.8%
RussianThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
(the third highest percentage among Vilnius' elderates, behind
Naujoji VilniaNaujoji Vilnia is a neighborhood in eastern Vilnius, Lithuania situated along the banks of the Vilnia River. It has eldership status. The district has a population of about 32,800...
and
NaujininkaiNaujininkai is one of the neighborhoods of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is situated in the south-west of the city and lies between the Vilnius International Airport and the railway station. It has an eldership status. It has an Old Believers' cemetery and a church....
), 14.4%
Polesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, 3.8%
BelarusianBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
, 1.7%
UkrainianUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, 0.8% Jewish, 0.2% Tatar, 0.1%
LatvianLatvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
, 0.1%
ArmenianArmenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, and 2.9% other or unspecified ethnicity.
Population
According to the 2001 census, Žirmūnai was the most populous elderate in Vilnius (47,410 residents, comprising 8.7% of Vilnius' total population) and the third most populous in Lithuania after
ŠilainiaiŠilainiai is an elderate in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, built as a microdistrict in the 1980s. It is one of the largest elderates in the city, covering 25.33 hectares, and housing over 70,000 people as of 2006...
and
DainavaDainava is a fairly new neighbourhood located in the north of center of Kaunas, the second largest city of Lithuania. It has an elderate status....
,
KaunasKaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
. The population density was 8,317.5/km². According to the census, there were 21,363 private households in the Žirmūnai elderate, making for an average household size of about 2.2 persons. The population of Žirmūnai has been rapidly increasing, largely due to construction of residential buildings in the
Šiaurės miestelis section of the elderate. A former
elderThe term Elder is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority...
of Žirmūnai estimated its 2002 population to be about 60,000 residents – an increase of about 13,000 over the 2001 census figure. This rapid growth has placed a strain on city services.
Age cohorts
Žirmūnai is occasionally described as a "borough of elderly people" or even a "borough of elderly women". There is a certain statistical basis to the claim: according to the data of the April 2001 census, only about 43.5% of Žirmūnai's population were male, the second lowest percentage in Vilnius, after Žvėrynas (43.1%); 27.4% of the population (33.2% of women and 19.9% of men) were of legal retirement age, which was 57.5 years for women and 61.5 years for men at the time. This is the highest percentage in Vilnius; accordingly, Žirmūnai had the lowest percentage of residents that were statistically of working age (defined as over age 15 and up to the retirement age) in Vilnius, only 56.4% in total: 52.8% of women and 61.1% of men.
The heavy proportion of elderly persons in the district may be attributed to the settled way of life of those residents who arrived during the building boom of the 1960s: the children of these residents moved elsewhere to live, leaving their parents in the old dwelling. The skewed male–female ratio is probably an artifact of the differential between male and female lifespans in Lithuania (male average lifespan in Lithuania was 66 years in 2004, as against 78 for females), according to the
World Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
.
At the time of the 2001 census, persons aged between 0 and 15 years comprised 16.1% of Žirmūnai's population, the second lowest percentage among Vilnius' elderates, slightly higher than
ViršuliškėsViršuliškės is an eldership in the Vilnius city municipality, Lithuania. It occupies 2,6 km². According to the 2001 census, it has a population of 16,250....
at 15.5%. However, it is likely that the average age of Žirmūnai's residents has decreased since the last census, and will continue to decrease, as a result of the active construction of new dwellings, which are acquired primarily by younger people. As housing prices rise, retirees are motivated to sell their apartments with the goal of acquiring cheaper housing elsewhere with funds to spare.
Crime statistics
In 2005, 2,317 crimes were registered in the Žirmūnai elderate. This is the third highest figure among Vilnius' elderates, behind the Old Town and Naujamiestis. Using the population data of the latest available census (2001), this would amount to about 48.9 crimes per 1,000 residents per year (only the eighth highest figure, due to the elderate's large population; Vilnius' total crime rate, using the same population data, would be about 51 crimes per 1,000 residents). In terms of crime density, 406.5 crimes per 1 square kilometre were registered (the fourth highest figure, behind the Old Town, Naujamiestis and Šnipiškės; Vilnius' total crime density, using the same population data, would be about 70.4).
However, thanks largely to the crime prevention programme
Saugus miestas ("Safe City"), crime rates in Žirmūnai, as in all other elderates of Vilnius, are declining. For instance, 886 crimes were registered in Žirmūnai during the first four months of 2005, versus 672 during the same period of 2006, a decline of about 24%. If this trend continues, Žirmūnai's crime rate for 2006 would decrease to about 37.2 crimes per 1,000 residents.
The most frequently registered crimes during the first four months of 2006 were: theft (335 instances, including 19 car thefts, constituting about 50% of the total number of crimes); rape (259 instances or about 38.5% of the total); robbery (44 instances or about 6.5%); and bodily injury (20 instances or about 3%). Percentage data may overlap as one criminal act may have several features, which are registered separately, but the total number of crimes is calculated per incident.
History
The elderate of Žirmūnai embraces three historical suburbs of Vilnius:
Žvejai,
Tuskulėnai and
Šiaurės miestelis. Fishing village
Žvejai dating to the 14th century included the only glass factory in the 16th century Lithuania, as well as the largest Jewish cemetery. It became an integral part of Vilnius in the 16th century. The area south of Žvejai became known after the name of the Tusculanum Manor. Manor itself was a property of noble families and officials, and is the oldest building in Žirmūnai. In the 19th century, a military garrison was established in the present-day
Šiaurės miestelis, which was used by Russian, French and Polish armies. These territories were consolidated into Vilnius city during the period of rapid growth that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The Tuskulėnai Manor was used as the
KGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
officers' apartments back then. In the last years, a housing renovation program was launched in Žirmūnai. Military structures in
Šiaurės miestelis of a historical value have been preserved and restored.
Šiaurės miestelis became one of the most sought–after residential and commercial areas of Vilnius.
14th–19th centuries
Žirmūnai's southernmost section, which lies on the bank of the River Neris opposite the
Vilnius Castle ComplexThe Vilnius Castle Complex , is a group of cultural, and historic structures on the left bank of the Neris River, near its confluence with the Vilnia River, in Vilnius, Lithuania. The buildings, which evolved between the 10th and 18th centuries, were one of Lithuania's major defensive...
, was part of the settlement known as
Žvejai; another part of that settlement is now located within the elderate of Šnipiškės. According to archaeological surveys from 2005, a
fishingA fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
village may have been located here as early as the late 14th century, giving the area its name, literally,
Fishermen; it was later settled by
craftsmenAn artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
and housed the
OrthodoxThe Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Church of
St BarbaraSaint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....
. During the 16th century, the only glass factory in the
Grand Duchy of LithuaniaThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
was located in the suburb of
Žvejai. In 1563, after the construction of the first bridge over the River Neris (at the approximate location of today's Mindaugas Bridge), the suburb of
Žvejai became an integral part of the city of Vilnius. During Tsarist rule in the 19th century, the name of
Žvejai was superseded by that of
Piramont, originating from the small estate of Piramont in the area (now Kalvarijų 1).
Piramontskij Alley can be seen in a 1904 map of Vilnius where today's
A. Juozapavičiaus Street in the elderate of Šnipiškės is located, close to the boundary of Žirmūnai. The usage of
Piramont as a placename gradually became limited to the southern part of
Žvejai.
The heritage of
Žvejai was retained in the name of
Žvejų ("Fishermen's") Street, which runs alongside the River Neris in southern Šnipiškės and Žirmūnai. However, the Žirmūnai section of this street was renamed
Olimpiečių ("Olympians") in 2000 to commemorate the achievements of Lithuanian Olympic athletes in the Sydney Olympics.
The largest and oldest Jewish cemetery in Lithuania, first mentioned in 1592, was also located in Žvejai. It was known in the local Jewish community as
Shnipishok. The Yiddish placename later became associated with the whole borough of Šnipiškės, now bordering Žirmūnai on the west. Although the cemetery was officially closed in 1830 and was subject to gradual deterioration, there were further interments.
Vilna GaonElijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra or Elijah Ben Solomon, , was a Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic Jewry of the past few centuries...
, as well as other famous Vilnian Jews, were interred in the cemetery.
During the years of the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, in the area on the right bank of the River Neris opposite the
St. Peter and St. Paul's ChurchSt. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Vilnius is a Roman Catholic church located in the Antakalnis neighbourhood of the city. Its interior has masterful compositions of stucco mouldings by Giovanni Pietro Perti and ornamentation by Giovanni Maria Galli of Milan, and is considered a Lithuanian Baroque...
in
AntakalnisAntakalnis is an eldership in the Vilnius city municipality, Lithuania. Antakalnis is one of the oldest historical suburbs of Vilnius City. It is located in the eastern section of Vilnius, along the right bank of the Neris River...
, a Royal Manor called
Derevnictva (Polish:
Derewnictwo), was established in the mid-16th century by King Sigismund Augustus as an outpost of the Vilnius Castles. The manor was held by the kings
Sigismund III VasaSigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
and
Władysław IV VasaWładysław IV Vasa was a Polish and Swedish prince from the House of Vasa. He reigned as King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 8 November 1632 to his death in 1648....
, nobleman M. Piegłowski, the Wołowicz family, the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Michał Kazimierz Pac, as well by the
Tyzenhaus familyTyzenhaus was a noble family of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of German extraction. It was active in the Duchy of Livonia, Duchy of Courland and the northern Grand Duchy of Lithuania...
after 1741. In the mid-18th century,
LateranThe Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran , commonly known as St. John Lateran's Archbasilica and St. John Lateran's Basilica, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope...
monks acquired the manor and named it
Tusculanum, after the resort outside the ancient
RomanRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
city of
TusculumTusculum is a ruined Roman city in the Alban Hills, in the Latium region of Italy.-Location:Tusculum is one of the largest Roman cities in Alban Hills. The ruins of Tusculum are located on Tuscolo hill—more specifically on the northern edge of the outer crater ring of the Alban volcano...
. (see also:
Villa RufinellaVilla Rufinella, also called Villa Tuscolana, is a villa in Frascati, Italy.Villa Rufinella is situated highest of the villas on the hill above the town of Frascati. It was built by Alessandro Ruffini, bishop of Melfi, in 1578, but during its history, the proprietors have made changes in different...
) The surrounding forests were used as a
game reserveA game reserve is an area of land set aside for maintenance of wildlife for tourism or hunting purposes. Many game reserves are located in Africa. Most are open to the public, and tourists commonly take sightseeing safaris or hunt wild game....
and for sport fishing. Towards the end of the century, the manor was separated into the
folwarkFolwark is a Polish word for a primarily serfdom-based farm and agricultural enterprise , often very large. Folwarks were operated in the Crown of Poland from the 14th century and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since the 15th century, from the second half of the 16th century in the joint...
s of Tuskulėnai, based on the core of the old royal manor, and Derevnictva.
Under the rule of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in the 19th century, the
Tuskulėnai ManorTuskulėnai Manor is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.-Structures:The Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, by the order of the...
was held by various noble families and high-ranking state officials, including Governor General of
Lithuanian–Vilna GovernorateThe Vilna Governorate or Government of Vilna was a governorate of the Russian Empire created after the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795...
, Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov. In the mid-19th century the main palace was transformed into a guesthouse that became a cultural center in Vilnius, often visited by
Stanislaw MoniuszkoStanisław Moniuszko was a Polish composer, conductor and teacher. His output includes many songs and operas, and his musical style is filled with patriotic folk themes of the peoples of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
and
Józef Ignacy KraszewskiJózef Ignacy Kraszewski was a Polish writer, historian and journalist who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.As a novelist writing about...
. The manor passed into the possession of Julija Safranovich after 1886, and then was held by Olga Melentjeva and her
noble familyThe Russian nobility arose in the 14th century and essentially governed Russia until the October Revolution of 1917.The Russian word for nobility, Dvoryanstvo , derives from the Russian word dvor , meaning the Court of a prince or duke and later, of the tsar. A nobleman is called dvoryanin...
until
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The area surrounding Tuskulėnai Manor was referred to as
Tuskulėnai (Russian:
Tuskuljany; Polish:
Tuskulanum) until World War II. This area was also known as
Losiovka or
Losiuvka, colloquially named after A. Losev, colonel of
Special Corps of GendarmesThe Special Corps of Gendarmes was the uniformed security police of the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilities were law enforcement and state security....
and later general of the Russian Empire, who owned the folwark of Tuskulėnai in 1869. The placenames are associated primarily with individual wooden houses, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some of which are still scattered among the apartment buildings.
A military garrison was built in the approximate location of the modern
Šiaurės miestelis ("North Town", that is, north of Old Vilnius) section of Žirmūnai by the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
during the 19th century. This area went on to be used as a garrison by a number of armies: Napoleon's Grande Armée in 1812, Tsarist for the rest of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century (see: the 27th infantry division's camp in the map of 1904), the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s during
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the Polish army in the inter-war period, and the
Red ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
from the 1950s to 1992.
20th century
During the interwar period, when Vilnius was under Polish control, the southern part of
Žvejai was known as
Pióromont; the entire
Žvejai area was referred to as
Rybaki (
PolishPolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
for "Fishermen"); modern
Šiaurės miestelis had been called
Plac broni (Polish for the "Military training ground"); and the old placename of
Derewnictwo, dating back to the times of the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, applied to the area north of Tuskulėnai Manor.
A map of Vilnius published in 1942, while the city was under Nazi rule, shows the northern part of Žirmūnai as
Paneriškės, the middle section as
Kareiviškės ("place of soldiers") and the southern part, close to the Tuskulėnai Manor, as
Mantiškės ("a place named in honour of Mantas"). One of the streets in the area,
Enriko Manto Street, referred to Herkus Mantas (
Herkus MonteHerkus Monte was the most famous leader of the Great Prussian Uprising against the Teutonic Knights and Northern Crusaders...
), a hero of the Great Prussian Uprising; today
H. Manto Street is a short street in the Šnipiškės elderate ending at the boundary of Žirmūnai.
A Soviet
military baseA military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
was established in the current
Šiaurės miestelis section of Žirmūnai during the 1950s. The heavily wooded northernmost part of the elderate was thinly populated until the 1960s.
During the 1960s, Žirmūnai attracted the attention of
urban plannersUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
; it became the first city district in the
Lithuanian SSRThe Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
to be constructed applying urban planning concepts established in the USSR at that time. Designed in 1962, the district consisted of three
microdistrictMicrodistrict, or microraion , is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former Communist states...
s - residential and industrial sections centred around public facilities and had been the largest residential area in the city.
The first microdistrict, or "Žirmūnai I", which is district's middle section, was built in 1962—67 in accordance with a project by architect Birutė Kasperavičienė, who was avarded the
USSR State PrizeThe USSR State Prize was the Soviet Union's state honour. It was established on September 9, 1966. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the prize was followed up by the State Prize of the Russian Federation....
in 1968, together with architect Bronislovas Krūminis and engineer Vaclovas Zubras; it was the first time this award had been presented to the designers of a large-scale residential construction. The second microdistrict, "Žirmūnai II", which is the southernmost of the three, was built in 1964—68, its architect being Nijolė Chlomauskienė. And the third, the northernmost microdistrict, "Žirmūnai III" designed by architect Laima Burneikienė was built in 1964—69 in the site of the former village of Paneriškės. The city district was then named after the formerly Lithuanian village of
ŽirmūnaiZhirmuny of Belarus, 16 kilometres from the Lithuania–Belarus border.The place is first mentioned in chronicles of the 15th century when it was the property of the Butrim family. In 1437 a church was established by the merchant Wojciech Kuciuk. In 1513 it became the property of Field Hetman Jerzy...
, now situated 16 kilometres from the Lithuania–
BelarusBelarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
border in the Voranauski District,
Hrodna ProvinceHrodna Voblast or Grodno Oblast is a voblast in northwestern Belarus.The capital - Grodno is the biggest city of the province. It lies on the Neman River. Grodno's existence is attested to from 1127. Two castles dating from the 14th - 18th centuries are located here on the steep right bank of...
of Belarus. This village is where
Karol PodczaszyńskiKarol Podczaszyński was a Polish-Lithuanian architect, a representative of the neoclassical architecture and a professor of the Imperial University of Vilna, as well as one of the pioneers of industrial design....
, an architect and designer of
Tuskulėnai ManorTuskulėnai Manor is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.-Structures:The Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, by the order of the...
, was born. Nevertheless, the district's major street Žirmūnų had this name since as early as at least 1942.
The new residential housing in the microdistrict consisted almost exclusively of five-story prefabricated concrete block apartment buildings popularly known as
khrushchyovkas. Three nine-story high-rise apartment buildings were built in 1969, and several more were constructed later, as well as seven brick-built twelve-storys. The apartment buildings were meant primarily to accommodate industrial workers who came to Vilnius from other regions of the Lithuanian SSR and from other
Soviet RepublicThe Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
s. They typify the
Brutalist architectureBrutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
of the era. The principles governing the design of the microdistrict were set forth in books by the University of Moscow planners, for instance in
New Element of Populating. En Route to the New City published in the USSR in 1966 (although the concept of the "new element" has been dated to 1959); the book was later published as
The Ideal Communist City in the United States, United Kingdom and Italy. According to the book, the optimal apartment size was about 600 square feet (56 square metres), with one bathroom and two bedrooms. Single-family homes were considered "too
autonomous".
The ancient Jewish cemetery in
Žvejai stood in the way of the expansion. Many tombstones were destroyed in 1950 during the construction of
Žalgiris StadiumŽalgiris Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania. The stadium holds 15,029 and was being used by the first division 1 Lyga - REO Vilnius...
; the cemetery was completely demolished in 1955 in accordance with a decree issued by local authorities in 1948. The bodies of
Vilna GaonElijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, known as the Vilna Gaon or Elijah of Vilna and simply by his Hebrew acronym Gra or Elijah Ben Solomon, , was a Talmudist, halachist, kabbalist, and the foremost leader of non-hasidic Jewry of the past few centuries...
and several members of his immediate family were relocated, after receiving special permission from the Soviet authorities; this relocation has been the subject of historical controversy. The cemetery was the subject of an archaeological survey in the late 1990s. A memorial stone was placed in the southeastern portion of the former cemetery with an inscription in Yiddish and Lithuanian, stating that the cemetery was established there in 1478 (this dating is disputed).
An incident in Žirmūnai's history that has been difficult to reconstruct occurred in 1975, when a
pontoon bridgeA pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
across the River Neris, that was customarily set up from spring to autumn, collapsed due to the weight of a crowd returning from a concert in the Palace of Concerts and Sports. It was rumoured that the bridge supports were not fully connected at the time. There were witnessed fatalities involving drownings and crushing by the bridge structures. Public discussion of the disaster was restricted and the number of casualties remains unknown. The pontoon bridge was never re-erected at the site; the Mindaugas Bridge now serves this need.
Tuskulėnai Manor had been nationalised in 1940 and was later used as
KGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
officers' apartments and as a kindergarten. During excavations that took place between 1994 and 1996 in its territory, the remains of 706 bodies were found; 40 were identified. The area had been used to hide the bodies of Lithuanian residents – mostly
resistance fighters against the Soviet occupationThe Lithuanian partisans can refer to various irregular military units in different historical periods active in Lithuania against foreign invaders and occupiers:...
and Nazi collaborators – who had been executed by the NKGB and
MGBThe Ministry of State Security was the name of Soviet secret police from 1946 to 1953.-Origins of the MGB:The MGB was just one of many incarnations of the Soviet State Security apparatus. Since the revolution, the Bolsheviks relied on a strong political police or security force to support and...
in the Vilnius' KGB Palace between 1944 and 1947 but also those who died fighting Polish
Armia KrajowaThe Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
soldiers. The remains from the
mass graveA mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
were placed in a
columbariumA columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
built underground, beneath an artificial hill, and consecrated in 2004.
In 2001, workers laying telephone line in
Šiaurės miestelis, near the former garrison, discovered a mass grave that was found to contain the bodies of about 2,000 soldiers – the remnants of Napoleon's Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow. In December 1812, temperatures in Vilnius had sunk to −30°C, and the frozen ground made proper burials impossible. The Grande Armée at that time comprised French, Portuguese, Italians, Germans, Austrians, Spaniards, and Croats, as well as Lithuanians and Poles. The bones have been intensively studied by
forensic pathologistsForensic pathology is a branch of pathology concerned with determining the cause of death by examination of a corpse. The autopsy is performed by the pathologist at the request of a coroner or medical examiner usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some...
;
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
evidence showed that many of the deaths were caused by
typhusEpidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
. Most of the remains were re-interred in
Antakalnis CemeteryAntakalnis Cemetery , sometimes referred as Antakalnis Military Cemetery, is the cemetery in the Antakalnis district of Vilnius in Lithuania. It was established in 1809....
. Other findings included buttons stamped with Napoleon’s image, crucifixes, wedding rings, belt buckles, boots and pieces of
French uniformsThe uniforms of La Grande Armée, the army of Napoleon I, are described in this article.-Infantry of the Line and light infantry:From 1793, the uniforms of the demi-brigades of the line infantry wore the blue "National Uniform" that was to be worn by all soldiers...
. Footage from the location has been used in the TV series
Moments in Time produced by
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and
Meet the Ancestors by
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The archaeological surveys were partially sponsored by the producers.
The
Red ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
military base in Žirmūnai was abandoned in 1992, a few years after Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union; a grace period was granted in order to ensure the orderly resettlement of the soldiers and their families.
21st century
Due to the Soviet principles of urban planning, Žirmūnai, according to the 2001 census data, was among the three Vilnius elderates (the other two being
KaroliniškėsKaroliniškės is a microdistrict and eldership of Vilnius, Lithuania. The district was started to be built in 1971.Karoliniškės covers about 3.7 km² area...
and Viršuliškės) with the lowest percentage of single-family housing in the city (0.1%). Of the remaining residents, 0.4% owned a share of individual housing, 0.7% lived in hostels, and almost 99% lived in apartments. The scarcity of lots means that the number of single-family dwellings is not likely to increase; a reverse process is taking place: old wooden houses are being demolished, making room for new residential and commercial constructions. As of 2007, there were only a few modern single-family houses in Žirmūnai.
Žirmūnai's housing, especially in its central sections, is in need of extensive
renovationRenovation is the process of improving a structure. Two prominent types of renovations are commercial and residential.-Process:The process of a renovation, however complex, can usually be broken down into several processes...
, due to wear and tear of its low or medium-quality construction. A program to renew old apartment buildings (including the installation of better
insulationbuilding insulation refers broadly to any object in a building used as insulation for any purpose. While the majority of insulation in buildings is for thermal purposes, the term also applies to acoustic insulation, fire insulation, and impact insulation...
) is ongoing in Vilnius, partially assisted by the Vilnius City Municipality; the first finished renovation project – a completely renewed 60-apartment building built in 1965 – is located in Žirmūnai. The area is, in some ways, analogous to
public housingPublic housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
districts in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; although much of the housing was quickly and inexpensively erected in the 1960s, its proximity to downtown Vilnius, its transportation
infrastructureInfrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, and its access to the River Neris account for its popularity. The principles of Soviet urban planning that led to its growth have converged with the modern concept of "
Smart growthSmart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a...
".
The
Šiaurės miestelis section of Žirmūnai is growing rapidly and in 2007 was one of Vilnius' most sought-after residential and commercial areas.
Many of the military structures that were built in the late 19th century in
Šiaurės miestelis have been preserved and restored. Meanwhile, much of the construction that was not deemed to be of permanent value, erected during the Soviet times, has been demolished, leaving room for new streets and housing. The combination of military heritage sites and newer construction is a distinctive feature of
Šiaurės miestelis.
Reflecting its military history, numerous street names in and around
Šiaurės miestelis allude to military concepts, including
Kareivių ("Soldiers"),
Lakūnų ("Pilots"),
Žygio ("March"),
Apkasų ("Trenches"),
Ulonų ("Light Cavalry"). The new streets built in
Šiaurės miestelis during the beginning of the 21st century were named for prominent figures in Lithuanian military history: Povilas Lukšys, Lithuanian army volunteer, the first to perish in the Independence Wars in 1919 with the
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
forces, as well as Kazys Ladyga,
Silvestras ŽukauskasSilvestras Žukauskas , was a general in the Russian army, and later in his native Lithuania, after it regained its independence in 1918.- Biography :After graduating from the secondary school in Marijampolė, Žukauskas studied at the military academy...
, Jonas Galvydis-Bikauskas, Vladas Nagevičius, and Jurgis Kubilius, prominent officers of the inter-war
Lithuanian ArmyThe Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of ~14,500 active personnel . Conscription was ended in September 2008.Lithuania's defence system is based on the concept of "total and unconditional defence" mandated by Lithuania's national Security Strategy...
, whose histories are not directly related to the area. On the contrary, these personalities distinguished themselves by opposing the Bolshevik and
Polish armiesThe Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
that were historically garrisoned in
Šiaurės miestelis. The naming was suggested by the Ministry of Defence. There are more streets not far from
Šiaurės miestelis that bear military-themed names:
Raitininkų ("Cavalrymen"),
Žvalgų ("Scouts") and
Rinktinės ("Platoon").
An international dispute arose in the 2000s over construction near the Jewish cemetery, with organizations expressing concerns that gravesites could be disturbed.
Education
The educational institutions in Žirmūnai include three
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s, all Lithuanian-language. Tuskulėnai Secondary School had 1,463 students in 2006, which made it the fifth largest school in Vilnius. The school features advanced classes in the visual arts. St. Christopher's Gymnasium was the eighth largest in Vilnius with 1,391 students in 2006.
Žirmūnai GymnasiumVilnius Žirmūnai Gymnasium is a Lithuanian language gymnasium school located in Žirmūnai district of Vilnius, Lithuania.It formerly was known as Vilnius Secondary School No. 7. The Gymnasium had 800 students in 2006. The school was granted the title Gymnasium in 2000; it is home to the acclaimed...
had 800 students in 2006. The school was granted the title
GymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
in 2000; it is home to the acclaimed
brass bandA brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
Septima, established in 1966.
There are three elementary schools located in Žirmūnai:
Antoni WiwulskiAntoni Wiwulski was a Polish- Lithuanian architect and sculptor.He was born February 20, 1877 in Totma near Vologda in Imperial Russia, where his father, of Lithuanian origin, served as a forest superintendent...
,
Emilia PlaterCountess Emilia Plater was a Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary from the lands of the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
, and St. Christopher.
Šarūnas MarčiulionisRaimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. He was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the North American National Basketball Association...
Basketball School and Vilnius Sports School offer
physical educationPhysical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
. The Vilnius School of Radioelectronics and Precision Mechanics (Lithuanian:
Vilniaus radioelektronikos ir tiksliosios mechanikos mokykla) was established in 1965 to prepare workers for
Vilma, a manufacturer of electrical products still operating in Žirmūnai. The Vilnius School of Tourism and Commerce (Lithuanian:
Vilniaus turizmo ir prekybos verslo mokykla) offers certificates in retailing, basic bookkeeping, hotel and restaurant services, and other business areas. Vilnius Gija Youth School serves those students who have special needs and do not succeed in traditional classroom settings. Žirmūnai also has one of the three Children's Foster Homes in Vilnius.
As of the census taken in April 2001, 26.2% of Žirmūnai's residents aged 10 or older possessed a
bachelor'sA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
or higher degree.
Parks and museums
Tuskulėnai ManorTuskulėnai Manor is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania.-Structures:The Tuskulėnai Manor is the oldest architectural monument in Žirmūnai. The present manor was built in 1825, following a design by Karol Podczaszyński in the neoclassical style, by the order of the...
is Žirmūnai's oldest extant architectural structure. The manor was built in 1825, following a design by
Karol PodczaszyńskiKarol Podczaszyński was a Polish-Lithuanian architect, a representative of the neoclassical architecture and a professor of the Imperial University of Vilna, as well as one of the pioneers of industrial design....
in the
neoclassical styleNeoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
. It consists of the principal building (the palace), an
officina (storage house), and several adjacent buildings, including a small
eclecticEclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
chapel of St. Theresa located about 100 metres south of the principal building. The "Little White Manor", also known as the villa of Franciszek Walicki, was built in 1866 further south from the manor, acquired by Walicki in 1928, and reconstructed to serve as a summer residence. All of these structures have been
restoredBuilding restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
by 2009, and are a part of the 7.5-hectare Peace Park (
Rimties parkas) that includes the Tuskulėnai Manor, hosting a museum of
martyrologyA martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs , arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by names borrowed from neighbouring churches...
in Lithuania in the second half of the 20th century (a branch of the Lithuanian
Museum of Genocide VictimsThe Museum of Genocide Victims in Vilnius, Lithuania was established in 1992 by order of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture and the President of the Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees. In 1997 it was transferred to the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania...
), restored landscaping, as well as the columbarium.
A Museum of
ComputingComputing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
was opened in 2001 in Žirmūnai by the Lithuanian software company
Sintagma, showcasing the history of Lithuanian computing science and hardware production. It was based on a museum opened in 1985 by
Sigma, one of the leading computer manufacturers in the former Soviet Union. The museum's exhibits include EV-80, the first Soviet vacuum tube computing machine manufactured by
Sigma, and a copy of the
IBM 604The IBM 604 was a control panel programmable Electronic Calculating Punch introduced in 1948, and was a machine on which considerable expectations for the future of IBM were pinned and in which a corresponding amount of planning talent was invested...
.
Three of the 19 brick chapels of the Vilnius
Stations of the CrossStations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
(
Vilniaus Kalvarijos), part of
Verkiai Regional ParkVerkiai Regional Park is one of the Regional Parks in Lithuania. It is located almost entirely in Verkiai elderate of Vilnius municipality.The park was established in 1992 in order to protect natural complexes of the Green Lakes and cultural complexes of Verkiai Palace and a park, Kalvarijos and...
, are located at the extreme northwestern corner of Žirmūnai, just within the elderate's border. Once destroyed in 1963 and completely rebuilt, the three chapels, symbolizing the
Mount of OlivesThe Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
and the Gardens of Gethsemane, are found only 20 meters away from the relatively busy
Verkių Street, and about a hundred meters downhill from a group of Soviet multi-storey apartment buildings.
The forested area along the banks of the River Neris in Žirmūnai and its walkways are a popular recreational destination for many Vilnians.
Governmental offices
As a primarily residential area, Žirmūnai hosted only 7.4% of Vilnius' public offices in 2003. Žirmūnai is the location of the Personal Identity Documents Centre of Lithuania's Ministry of the Interior which produces all of Lithuania's identity cards, passports, and driver's licenses, as well as residency permits. Issuance of residence permits is controlled by Vilnius City Migration Service, which is housed in Žirmūnai too. The State Tax Inspectorate has an office in Šiaurės Miestelis, providing services to private as well as legal persons. There are also several medicine-related institutions, such as the Ministry of Health's State Public Health Service, the Vilnius city
morgueA morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
. The Institute of Forensic Medicine of the
Mykolas Romeris UniversityMykolas Romeris University is a university in the capital city of Vilnius, Lithuania, bearing the name of the Lithuanian legal scholar, judge and father of Lithuania's Constitutional Law Mykolas Römeris. Established in 2004, it is a state-funded institution....
was headquartered in Šiaurės Miestelis as well. The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, the Vilnius Department of the Lithuanian Labour Exchange at the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, the Honorary Vice-Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain, and the National Examination Center, established by the Ministry of Education to organize centralized nationwide examinations of high school graduates, all have headquarters in Žirmūnai.
Sports and entertainment venues
Several notable sports facilities are located in Žirmūnai, including
Žalgiris StadiumŽalgiris Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania. The stadium holds 15,029 and was being used by the first division 1 Lyga - REO Vilnius...
, Lithuania's largest stadium, and Impuls Plus fitness club.
RowingRowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
practices take place on the River Neris; there is a base of operation, as well as several piers, on the Žirmūnai bank of the river. One of Lithuania's largest indoor public swimming pools was situated in Žirmūnai until the 1990s. Part of the annual international Vilnius
MarathonThe marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...
course runs along the Žirmūnai bank of the River Neris.
The Palace of Concerts and Sports (
Koncertų ir sporto rūmai), built in 1971 in the southernmost part of Žirmūnai in the middle of the former cemetery, is an example of Soviet
ConstructivismConstructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the movement produced...
and
Brutalist architectureBrutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
, remarkable for its
vesselSince the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
-like exterior. The Palace, once one of the architectonic icons of Soviet Vilnius, was, until the 1990s, a major venue for sporting events, especially local and international basketball matches, as well as concerts and shows. Its seating capacity is about 4,400. On 22–23 October 1988 the building hosted the statutory meeting of
SąjūdisSąjūdis initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania, is the political organization which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was established on June 3, 1988 and was led by Vytautas Landsbergis...
, the Lithuanian political organization that led the struggle for Lithuanian independence; on 14–15 January 1991, a public
funeralA funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
for the victims of the
January EventsThe January Events took place in Lithuania between January 11 and 13, 1991 in the aftermath of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. As a result of Soviet military actions, 14 civilians were killed and more than 1000 injured...
took place at the Palace. Later in the 1990s, the building was used as a temporary
shopping mallA shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
where space was leased to small entrepreneurs for business exhibitions and fairs. In the 2000s developers announced plans to build multifunctional complexes, incorporating sports, business and residential structures, that would replace Žalgiris Stadium and the Palace of Concerts and Sports; the projects have been stalled due to the inclusion of the Palace into the list "Registry of Cultural Values" in July 2006, and related litigation.
The Vilnius Palace of Culture, Entertainment and Sports (an example of Soviet
functionalismFunctionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
built in 1980 as the Palace of Culture and Sports of the Ministry of Interior), hosts several amateur art clubs (choirs in particular), and is also used for indoor sports (
wrestlingWrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
,
martial artsMartial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
,
artistic gymnasticsArtistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...
, volleyball, basketball), as well as lawn tennis, including two clay courts.
Oskaras Koršunovas Oskaras Koršunovas is a Lithuanian theatre director.Between 1988 and 1994 Oskaras Koršunovas studied at the Music Academy of Lithuania and received Bachelors and Masters degrees in theatre directing...
Theatre has occupied the former
Lietuvos RytasLietuvos rytas is a Lithuanian daily newspaper, printed in Vilnius and a TV company. Lietuvos rytas sponsors basketball team BC Lietuvos Rytas and the annual Vilnius Marathon.-External links:*...
Arena which was the home of Lithuania's starring
basketball team Lietuvos RytasBC Lietuvos rytas is a professional basketball club based in Vilnius, Lithuania playing in the Lithuanian Basketball League , the VTB United League, and the Eurocup...
until the 2004 season, and was also used by the former women's basketball team BC Teo. Along with the Vilnius Palace of Culture, Entertainment and Sports, it was used in 2006 as part of the set for
9/11: The Twin Towers, a
docudramaIn film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
about the
September 11, 2001 attacksThe September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, a Dangerous Films production for
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and
Discovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
.
Ūkio banko teatro arena ("
Ūkio BankasŪkio Bankas is a Lithuanian commercial bank based in Kaunas. More than 50% of shares are owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov who therefore is in the control of the bank. It is the fifth largest and oldest private bank in Lithuania...
Theater Arena") is now the venue of performances of
Eimuntas NekrošiusEimuntas Nekrošius is one of the most renowned theatre directors in Lithuania.- Career :...
of
Meno FortasMeno Fortas is a theatrical production facility and theater group in Vilnius formed and directed by Lithuanian Eimuntas Nekrošius since 1998. It was specifically created for the production of works under this director, but is also active in the formation of young theater arts professionals and the...
and Anželika Cholina Dance Theatre.
Southern Žirmūnai's sporting connections are reflected in the names of the streets along the Žirmūnai side of the River Neris:
Sporto ("Sports") and
Olimpiečių ("Olympians"). The Palace of Students' Technical Creative Work of the Republic is Lithuania's largest facility for high school students' after-school activities of a technical nature, such as
model buildingModel building as a hobby involves the creation of models either from kits or from materials and components acquired by the builder.Categories of modelling include:*Scale model building*Live steam models*Matchstick models*Military models...
and
go-kart racingKart racing or karting is a variant of open-wheel motorsport with small, open, four-wheeled vehicles called karts, go-karts, or gearbox/shifter karts depending on the design. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits...
. The Grand Theater of Vilnius (
Didysis Vilniaus teatras) is a small theater (its misnomer is intentional) that is formally based in
Šiaurės miestelis; it has no venue of its own and holds performances in other theaters.
A building close to the western border of the Žirmūnai elderate, an example of
Socialist historicismStalinist architecture , also referred to as Stalinist Gothic, or Socialist Classicism, is a term given to architecture of the Soviet Union between 1933, when Boris Iofan's draft for Palace of the Soviets was officially approved, and 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev condemned "excesses" of the past...
built soon after the end of World War II, was the home of the
Tėvynė ("Motherland") Cinema until the early 1990s; it has been hosting the
New York musical theatre and club since 2004. It is unclear whether this building will be demolished to make way for underground parking lots or saved by virtue of its inclusion into the Registry of Cultural Values.
Commercial and industrial facilities
1,414 businesses, comprising 8.7% of all Vilnius' businesses, were headquartered in the Žirmūnai elderate in 2003. Lithuania's largest electricity distribution network operator,
Rytų skirstomieji tinklai, operates from Žirmūnai, as well as
TELE2Tele2 AB is a major European telecommunications operator, with about 34 million customers in 11 countries. It serves as a fixed-line telephone operator, cable television provider, mobile phone operator and Internet service provider.- Overview :...
, one of Lithuania's three mobile communications operators;
Ogmios, one of Lithuania's largest retailers and wholesalers of
home applianceHome appliances are electrical/mechanical machines which accomplish some household functions, such as cooking or cleaning. Home appliances can be classified into:*Major appliances, or White goods*Small appliances, or Brown goods...
s; and
Vilpra, Lithuania's largest dealer of heating equipment.
In 1992, the former prominent
Lithuanian basketballThe Lithuanian national basketball team is the representative for Lithuania in international men's basketball. Lithuania won bronze medals in three out of five Olympic tournaments it participated in....
player
Šarūnas MarčiulionisRaimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. He was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the North American National Basketball Association...
and his business partners opened the
Šarūnas Hotel in Žirmūnai.
The
Banginis and
Rimi HypermarketRimi Baltic is a major retail operator in the Baltic states based in Riga, Latvia. It is a subsidiary of Swedish group ICA. Rimi Baltic operates 246 retail stores in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania and has distribution centres in each country...
, located in
Šiaurės miestelis, are among Lithuania's largest shopping centers.
Vilniaus duona ("The Bread of Vilnius"), Lithuania's largest baking company, operates one of its bakeries in Žirmūnai.
An abundance of automotive service facilities and car dealerships are located in the elderate, including some of the Lithuania's largest
OpelAdam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
,
SAABSaab AB is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. From 1947 to 1990 it was the parent company of automobile manufacturer Saab Automobile, and between 1968 and 1995 the company was in a merger with commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania, known as Saab-Scania.-History:"Svenska...
,
ChevroletChevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
(
Žaibo ratas), and Nissan (
Raitas) dealerships.
The northern part of Žirmūnai was an important part of the Lithuanian SSR's industrial sector during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The
Kuro aparatūros gamykla (Fuel Equipment Factory) is now bankrupt;
Sigma, formerly one of the leading manufacturers of electronics and computer components in the Soviet Union, which contributed to the description of the
Lithuanian SSRThe Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
as "The Soviet
Silicon ValleySilicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
", continues to operate at a minimum level; and
Vilma remains Lithuania's largest manufacturer of electrical products.
Transport
Žirmūnai is well-served by Vilnius' bus and
trolleybusA trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
transportation network. One of Vilnius' trolleybus hubs is located in the northernmost part of Žirmūnai elderate, and
Vilniaus Autobusai, Vilnius' main bus operator, is headquartered and has its main depot in Žirmūnai. Žirmūnai suffers from
rush hourA rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
traffic jams. The street network in the district was primarily designed in the Soviet era for a much lower vehicle traffic.
Žirmūnai is linked to the elderate of
AntakalnisAntakalnis is an eldership in the Vilnius city municipality, Lithuania. Antakalnis is one of the oldest historical suburbs of Vilnius City. It is located in the eastern section of Vilnius, along the right bank of the Neris River...
by three bridges over the River Neris: Valakampiai Bridge, the longest bridge in Vilnius, built in 1972; the Šilas Bridge, built in 1999, and
Žirmūnai BridgeŽirmūnai Bridge is a bridge across Neris River, that connects Žirmūnai and Antakalnis districts of Vilnius. This is a pier ferroconcrete bridge 181 meters long. It has three spans and four piers. The width between handrails is 20 meters . The bridge is a 1964 project by Leningrad institute...
, built in 1965. The
Mindaugas BridgeMindaugas Bridge crosses Neris River and connects Žirmūnai elderate with the Old Town of Vilnius, capital of Lithuania. The bridge was named after Mindaugas, King of Lithuania, and was opened in 2003 during the celebrations of the 750th anniversary of Mindaugas' coronation. The bridge is in length...
was built in 2003 to link Žirmūnai with Vilnius' Old Town. Passenger
ferryA ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
transport on the Neris was active until the 1990s, but is now limited to occasional chartered sightseeing tours from the Mindaugas Bridge to Valakampiai in summer.
For some time in the first half of the 20th century, a narrow-gauge railway traversed Žirmūnai following the approximate course of the modern
Minties Street; it crossed over the River Neris on a bridge located near the modern Šilas Bridge, as can be seen in the 1942 map of Vilnius.
External links
Vilnius Regional Statistical Office.
Statistics on Žirmūnai and other Vilnius elderates Vilnius City Municipality.
Map of Žirmūnai elderate (1:12,000) in 2004 Google Maps.
Žirmūnai imagery from 2002 or early 2003 Vilnius City Municipality.
Žirmūnai elderate contact information
See also
- History of Vilnius
This article is about the history of Vilnius, the capital and largest city of Lithuania.-Middle Ages:The earliest settlements in the area of present day Vilnius appear to be of mesolithic origin. Numerous archaeological findings in different parts of the city prove that the area has been inhabited...