Šalčininkai District Municipality ( lt, Šalčininkų rajono savivaldybė; pl, Samorząd rejonu solecznickiego) is one of 60 municipalities in
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
.
It has one of biggest
Polish minority populations in Lithuania, with 31,821 or 77,75% (2011 census) of the population claiming Polish ethnicity.
Šalčininkai
Šalčininkai (, , yi, סאָלעטשניק ''Solechnik'', be, Салечнікі) is a town in Vilnius County, Lithuania, situated south-east of Vilnius, near the border with Belarus.
Šalčininkai attained the town status in 1956 and is now ...
is the largest town and the administrative center of the district with its newly built quarters, while the second largest town is
Eišiškės
Eišiškės (, pl, Ejszyszki, russian: Эйши́шки/Eishishki, be, Эйшы́шкі/Eishyshki, yi, אײשישאָק/Eyshishok/Eishishok) is a small city in southeastern Lithuania on the border with Belarus. It is situated on a small group ...
, more historical town, which was the center of the district and the largest town before 1972.
The south-eastern border of the municipality with
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
includes a distinctive
salient of Lithuanian territory, known as the
Dieveniškės
Dieveniškės (in Lithuanian literally: ''Place of gods''; pl, Dziewieniszki; be, Дзевянішкі ''Dzevyanishki'') is a town in the Vilnius County of Lithuania, about from the Belarusian border in the so-called Dieveniškės appendix. I ...
appendix, almost completely surrounded by Belarus.
Lithuanian Route 104 passes through the district.
The Poškonys Reservoir (Poškonių tvenkinys) with an area of 0.3 km
2 on the
Gauja River
The Gauja River ( et, Koiva jõgi, german: Livländische Aa) is a river in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It is the only large river of Latvia that begins and ends its flow in Latvia. Its length is 460 km, of which 93.5 km (approxim ...
is located in the district.
References
Municipalities of Vilnius County
Municipalities of Lithuania
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