Vievis () is a small city in Elektrėnai municipality, Lithuania. It is located 14 km east of

Elektrėnai Elektrėnai () is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Lithuania; since 2000 it has been the capital of the Elektrėnai Municipality. It is situated between the two largest cities in Lithuania – Vilnius and Kaunas. History Elektrėnai is one ...

, on Lake Vievis. Its alternate names include Anastasevskaya, Jewie (Polish), Vevis, Vievio, Viyevis, V’yevis, and Yev’ye. In 1522 year the Vievis manor, in 1539 year - town, which belonged to

Ogiński family The House of Ogiński, feminine form: Ogińska, plural: Ogińscy ( lt, Oginskiai, be, Агінскія, Ahinskija) was a noble family of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland (later, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), member of the Princely Ho ...

, was mentioned. In the first half of 16th century the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

was built there. About 1600, Ogiński family built a

Uniate The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...

church and founded the

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

of the Holy Spirit (Lithuanian: ''Šventosios dvasios''). At the beginning of the 17th century a

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

was established near the abbey, notable for printing books by various

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

scholars.

Orthodox church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Vievis

In 1794 and 1812, the church burned down and was rebuilt in 1816. In 1837 an Orthodox church was built. In the period between

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and

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 ...

, Vievis was near the dividing line between Lithuania and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The town used to be among those with the largest Polish population, with roughly 77% inhabitants identifying themselves as Poles. In 2011 census, only 10.9% of inhabitants identified themselves as Poles as well as 3.74% Russians and 82.56% Lithuanians. The 17th century printing press became the reason why a 1970s

samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...

journal "Lustra dzion" edited by Vincuk Viačorka cited "Jewie" as the place of its publishing (even though it was in fact published in Minsk). The printing press is also featured on the modern coat of arms of the city, adopted in 1999. The Lithuanian Road Museum is in the city.

Twin towns

Óbuda-Békásmegyer Óbuda-Békásmegyer is the 3rd district of Budapest, Hungary. Landmarks * Aquincum, ruins of the Roman city * Óbuda Jewish Cemetery * Római Part (Roman Beach) History The military camp, then city of Aquincum, located in part of what later ...

–

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

, ''since 2016''

Notes and references

Cities in Lithuania Cities in Vilnius County Elektrėnai Municipality Trakai Voivodeship Troksky Uyezd {{VilniusCounty-geo-stub In the 1800s there was a large Jewish population as there was throughout the Pale of Settlement. While exact dates are unknown, it is said that some time in 1943 or 1944, the German occupiers rounded up the remaining several thousand Jews, marched them to the forest where they were shot. The remnants of the long time Jewish cemetery can be accessed through a gate in the divided highway built by the Russians in the 1960s. There is a simple plaque alongside the highway and barely recognizable remnants of a few graves, most of which were reputedly robbed for valuables.