Grigiškės (; ) is a city in the Vilnius city municipality,

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It is an industrial town with AB Grigiškės, a major paper factory built in 1923. Grigiškės is situated on both banks of the Vokė river, south of the river Neris.

History

Mounds from the 5th to 10th centuries show that the surrounding lands have been inhabited for a long time. Kunigiškės, Kauno Vokė and Salos-Afindevičiai villages were there, with the modern Grigiškės settlement being founded only in the 20th century. The name in 1923 was given by Grzegorz Kurec, an industrialist of Belarusian origin, who built a paper and cardboard factory and a water power plant with a unique Grigiškės water aqueduct. In the aftermath of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the factory was expanded, with many new workplaces being created. The town grew rapidly mainly due to the migration of Belarusian workers from

Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, Byelorussian SSR or Byelorussia; ; ), also known as Soviet Belarus or simply Belarus, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, republic of the Soviet Union (USSR). It existed between 1920 and 19 ...

as well as Lithuanian deportees returning from

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, who were prohibited to live in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

, settled here. In the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

era, Grigiškės factory also manufactured

fiberboard Fiberboard (American English) or fibreboard (Commonwealth English) is a type of engineered wood product that is made out of wood fibers. Types of fiberboard (in order of increasing density) include particle board or low-density fiberboard (LDF ...

s. On 15 May 1958, Grigiškės became an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

and the first Lithuanian schools were established. In 1968, a library was built. On 10 December 1996, by the decree of the Lithuanian president, the Grigiškės coat-of-arms was finally validated. Since 19 March 2000 (official since 21 December 1999), Grigiškės has been part of the Vilnius city municipality.

References

External links

Map of Grigiškės
Cities in Lithuania Cities in Vilnius County Vilnius City Municipality {{VilniusCounty-geo-stub