Avižieniai Eldership ( lt, Avižienių seniūnija) is an eldership in Lithuania, located in

Vilnius District Municipality Vilnius District Municipality ( lt, Vilniaus rajono savivaldybė) is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on 3 sides, while the rest borders the Trakai District Municipality. At the 2011 Census, Poles a ...

, northwest of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

. It is the most populous eldership in the municipality.

Geography

The eldership has a hillfort with a cultural layer dated to the beginning of 1st millennium A.D. The landscape is dominated by rolling hills in the Riešė Upland. Many small wooded areas and swamps, but the landscape is undergoing rapid change due to

suburbanization Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urba ...

and its proximity to the city. Notable rivers include Riešė and Čekonė, and there are several small lakes, such as Gilužis, Ežeraitis, Notiškis and Varlinka.

History

Avižieniai were known since the

Interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

for their gardens. In the 19th-century, an orthodox church was built in Bukiškis. It was damaged during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and only ruins and the basement remain, and are known to have the buried corpses of a general. The church rebuilding project was initiated in 1990, and the church was rebuilt in 2007.

Populated places

There are 27 villages located within the eldership, the largest of which are

Avižieniai Avižieniai vʲɪ'ʒʲɪenʲɪaiis a village in Vilnius District Municipality, Lithuania, west of the A2 Vilnius-Panevėžys highway. The village had the population of 2,125 as of 2011, which grew to 2,318 inhabitants in 2021 (according to the ...

, Bukiškis,

Riešė Riešė is a village in Vilnius District Municipality, Lithuania. According to the 2021 census, it had population of 1,595, an increase from 2011 census, which recorded 1,234 inhabitants, up from 419 in 1989 or +281% in 32 years. According to the ...

(of which only half of the village is located in the eldership, the other half belongs to Riešė Eldership), Bendoriai and Klevinė.

Notable locations

* Bukiškės Orthodox Church of Patron Mother of God * Avižieniai hillfort * Mažoji Riešė hillfort * Pikutiškės/Švedai hillfort * Aukštieji Rusokai tumulus * Galinė Manor with preserved palace and farmhouses * Kalno Riešė Manor farmhouse fragments near Riešė * Tarandė old cemetery *

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

soldier burial place in Bendoriai

Ethnic composition

According to 2011 National Census data, the ethnic composition is as follows:Republic of Lithuania 2011 National Census * Lithuanians - 65.0% *

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

- 24.4% *

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

- 5.6% According to 2021 census, out of 10,867 persons of the eldership: * Lithuanians - 70.9% (7704) *

- 18.8% (2043) *

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

- 5.1% (559) * Belarusians - 1.4% (157)

Gallery

File:Avižieniai, Lithuania - panoramio (9).jpg,

File:Bukiškis, cerkvė.JPG, Orthodox Church of Guardian Mother of God in Bukiškis File:Avižienių sen., Lithuania - panoramio (2).jpg, Highway A2 crosses the eldership File:Bajorai, kraštovaizdis.JPG, Landscape near Bajorai

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avizieniai Eldership Elderships in Vilnius District Municipality