Elektrėnai () is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants 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 ...

; since 2000 it has been the capital of the Elektrėnai Municipality. It is situated between the two largest cities in Lithuania –

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 urba ...

and

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 Traka ...

History

Elektrėnai is one of the newest towns of Lithuania, having been established during the

Soviet times The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...

as the living space for workers of the nearby power plant. The name of the new town was derived from word "elektrinė" (English: ''electric plant''). Most of the buildings in Elektrėnai are large monolith housing projects built during the Soviet times and there are no historical buildings. The town, however, is close to

Elektrėnai Reservoir Elektrėnai Reservoir ( lt, Elektrėnų marios), located south of the city of Elektrėnai, Lithuania, is the third-biggest artificial lake in Lithuania. It was created in 1961 by damming the Strėva River. It supplies cooling water to the 1,80 ...

, an artificial lake that was created in order to cool down the Elektrėnai Power Plant. The water is several degrees warmer than water at the other nearby lakes.

Retail

There are several supermarkets ( Norfa XXL, Maxima XX, Iki, Lidl, as well as a discounter (IKI Cento) in Elektrėnai.Retai.net: Rimi Baltic opened its 100th discounter
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Ice hockey

Elektrėnai is well known for its

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

tradition. For a rather long period of time Elektrėnai was the only city in Lithuania with a well-equipped skating rink. Two

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

players: Darius Kasparaitis and Dainius Zubrus were born in Elektrėnai. Its local ice hockey team is Energija. Inhabitants of Elektrėnai make up a considerable part of the national ice hockey team.

Gallery

References

External links

City of Elektrėnai - History

Virtual Tour of Elektrėnai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elektrenai Cities in Lithuania Cities in Vilnius County Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union Municipalities administrative centres of Lithuania Elektrėnai Municipality