Širvintos () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Vilnius County Vilnius County ( lt, Vilniaus apskritis) is the largest of the 10 counties of Lithuania, located in the east of the country around the city Vilnius. On 1 July 2010, the county administration was abolished, and since that date, Vilnius County re ...

in the eastern part of

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 is the administrative center of the

Širvintos district municipality Širvintos District Municipality ( lt, Širvintų rajono savivaldybė) is a municipality in Lithuania, it is in territory of Vilnius County and its capital is Širvintos. Geography The territory of the municipality is 906 km². Širvintos C ...

. The word ''Širvintos'' is the

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

form of the name of the

Širvinta River The Širvinta is a river in Lithuania. Stretching for 129 km, it is the longest tributary of the Šventoji. Its source is in the hinterlands of the Širvintos district. After it passes through the town of Širvintos, where a low head dam ha ...

, which flows through the city. Its alternate names include Shirvintay, Shirvintos, Širvintai, Širvintar, Širvintų, and Szyrwinty (Polish).

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

– Lithuania – Širvintos. Accessed January 24, 2014.

History

Before

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 opposin ...

, the town had an important Jewish community representing one-third of the total population. In September 1941, Jews of the town are murdered in mass executions perpetrated by Germans and Lithuanian collaborators. Since 2010, the city started expanding and renovated the city center which improved its image and popularity.

References

Cities in Vilnius County Cities in Lithuania Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania Širvintos District Municipality Vilnius Voivodeship Vilensky Uyezd {{VilniusCounty-geo-stub