Vilijampolė is a neighborhood in the city of

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

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 ...

, located on the right bank of the

Neris The river Neris () or Viliya ( be, Ві́лія, pl, Wilia ) rises in northern Belarus. It flows westward, passing through Vilnius (Lithuania's capital) and in the south-centre of that country it flows into the Nemunas (Neman), at Kaunas, as ...

River and the

Nemunas River The Neman, Nioman, Nemunas or MemelTo bankside nations of the present: Lithuanian: be, Нёман, , ; russian: Неман, ''Neman''; past: ger, Memel (where touching Prussia only, otherwise Nieman); lv, Nemuna; et, Neemen; pl, Niemen; ...

, near their confluence. Part of a larger which consists of Vilijampolė, , , and neighorhoods, and covers 1,720

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s with population of 32,000 people. In the past it was a separate town by Kaunas. Popular nickname ''Slabotkė'' is still in use, derived from the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

name of the place ''Słobódka Wiliampolska''. The word ''Wiliampolska'' is an adjective from "Wiliampol" ("Wilia town") derived from the Slavic name of the nearby

river - ''Wilia'' and "słobódka" means "little ''

sloboda A sloboda ( rus, слобода́, p=sləbɐˈda) was a kind of settlement in the history of the Old Russian regions Povolzhye, Central Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The name is derived from the early Slavic word for "freedom" and may be loosely ...

''". Later this name was Lithuanised into "Vilijampolė". Historically, it was the home of the Slabodka

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

, or Yeshivas Knesses Yisrael, and the main site of the

Kaunas Ghetto The Kovno Ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 29,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were sh ...

. The

Lithuanian Veterinary Academy Lithuanian University of Health Sciences ( lt, Lietuvos sveikatos mokslų universitetas, LSMU) is a medical school in Kaunas, Lithuania. The present-day Lithuanian University of Health Sciences is a consolidation of two institutions of higher e ...

campus is located in the neighbourhood. Two bridges across the Neris connects Vilijampolė with the main part of the city.

Petras Vileišis Bridge Petras Vileišis Bridge formerly known as Vilijampolė Bridge is a bridge connecting Kaunas Old Town and Vilijampolė, Lithuania. It is the last bridge over the Neris River before its mouth. Its length exceeds 291 metres, width 14 metres. The b ...

connects the district with the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

and

Varniai Bridge Varnių Bridge ( lt, Varnių tiltas) is a bridge across the Neris River, that connects Vilijampolė and Žaliakalnis districts of Kaunas, Lithuania. It was built in 1983. The bridge is 328 meters long and approximately 25 meters wide. It carrie ...

with the neighbourhood of

Žaliakalnis Žaliakalnis (literally, "the green hill") is an Elderships of Lithuania, elderate in Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas. Žaliakalnis is located north of the old town and the city center area, between the Neris and Girstupis valleys. It is on ...

References

City of Kaunas - Elderate of Vilijampolė

External links

Website of Kaunas city
* Neighbourhoods of Kaunas {{KaunasCounty-geo-stub