Minija or Mingė (in older texts also ''Minė'', often nicknamed ''Lithuanian
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
'') is a small fishermen's village in
Šilutė District Municipality
Šilutė (; previously ''Šilokarčiama''; ) is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County in western Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar period, interwar capital of Š ...
,
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 ...
on
Minija
The Minija is a river in western Lithuania and a right tributary to the Nemunas. It is long.Nemunas Delta Regional Park. This village is unique in Lithuania as the main "road" is the river. Houses are situated on both banks and there is no bridge to connect them. The only way to get around is to use a boat. In 1997 it had 48 residents.
The village was first mentioned in the 16th century. It was part of the
Lithuania Minor
Lithuania Minor (; ; ) or Prussian Lithuania (; ; ) is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is a historical region of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians (or Lietuvininkai) lived, now located in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Obla ...
in
East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
. Traditional peasant buildings survive from the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th centuries and are of architectural value. Minija reached its peak in the middle of the 19th century when the number of the inhabitants reached 406. The government decided to build
levee
A levee ( or ), dike (American English), dyke (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural ...
s only on the left bank of
Nemunas
Neman, Nemunas or Niemen is a river in Europe that rises in central Belarus and flows through Lithuania then forms the northern border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia's western exclave, which specifically follows its southern channel. It drains ...
in order to save money. The right side was left unprotected against annual spring flooding. As Minija was subject to frequent floods, the village did not have its own cemetery. People were buried in nearby Ventė. After World War II, the numbers of residents grew from 42 in 1943 to 124 in 1970. However, at the time only three families remained of the original pre-war Lietuvininks population.
Minija village is becoming a popular
rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...
and
water tourism
Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms ( ...
center as it is located close to the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...
,
Curonian Lagoon
The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf; Prussian: ''Kursjanmari'', , ) is a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surface area is . The Neman River () supplies about 90% of its inflows; its watershed consists of ...