Nemenčinė () is a city in

Vilnius district municipality Vilnius District Municipality () is one of the 60 municipalities in Lithuania. It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on three sides. The municipality is also bordered by Trakai District Municipality, Trakai district and Elektr ...

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 located only about north-east of

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 ...

. Close to Nemenčinė forest was planted which forms a sentence ''Žalgiris 600'' (commemorating the

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila), a ...

) visible from the air.

Names

''Nemenčinė'' is the original name of the town reflected in historical documents and still in use today. It derives from a Lithuanian word referring to the river Nemenčia.A. Vanagas. Lietuvos miestų vardai. p.151-152 Other versions of the name include ''Niemenczyn'' in Polish, ''Неменчын'' in Belarusian, Неменчине (or Нямянчине) in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, ''Nementschine'' in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and ''Nementchin'' (נעמענטשין) in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

History

Lithuanian wooden castle and the mound stood in Nemenčinė in 10-14th centuries. The settlement started to grow around the castle. In 1387, following the

Christianization of Lithuania The Christianization of Lithuania () occurred in 1387, initiated by the Lithuanian royals Jogaila, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his cousin Vytautas the Great. It signified the official adoption of Catholic Christianity by Li ...

, Jogaila established the first Christian

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

in Nemenčinė and built a church there. In a 1434 document Andrius Sakaitis, one of the most influential Lithuanian nobleman families during the reign of

Grand Duke of Lithuania This is a list of Lithuanian monarchs who ruled Lithuania from its inception until the fall of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1795. The Lithuanian monarch bore the title of Grand duke, Grand Duke, with the exception of Mindaugas, who was crown ...

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (Casimir Andrew Jagiellon; ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under ...

, listed Nemenčinė as his domain. In 1554, Nemenčinė after the Volok Reform got the rights of the town. In 1613, the town was marked on the map of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

– ''Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, et Regionum Adiacentium exacta Descriptio'' printed in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and financed by the Lithuanian magnate Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis. On 20 September 1941, 403 Jews from the town were massacred in a mass execution. 128 men, 186 women and 99 children were shot by an

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

of local Nazi collaborators. In 1971, a monument was erected on the execution site.

Ethnic composition

The ethnic composition of Nemenčinė is as follows: Total population in 2011 – 5054 *

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

56,5% (2858) *

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

27,1% (1368) *

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

9,2% (463) *

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

3,6% (183) *

Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...

0,9% (43) * Others 2,4% (120) Total population in 2021 – 4831 *

55,7% (2690) *

29,1% (1407) *

8,1% (391) *

2,9% (138) *

0,8% (38) * Others 3,3% (160)

International partnership

Nemenčinė is twinned with three towns in Poland: Węgorzewo (Ungura),

Ełk Ełk is a city in northeastern Poland with 61,677 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of Ełk County in the Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship. It lies on the shore of Ełk Lake, which was formed by a glacier, and is surrounded by extensiv ...

(Lukas) and

Suwałki Suwałki (; ; or סוּוואַלק) is a city in northeastern Poland with a population of 69,206 (2021). It is the capital of Suwałki County and one of the most important centers of commerce in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. A relatively young ci ...

(Suvalkai). It also has a partnership agreement with Poland's

West Pomeranian Voivodeship West Pomeranian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals , and in 2021, it was inhabited by 1,682,003 people. It was established on 1 Janua ...

, signed in

on 19 June 2009.

Sports

In 14 of September 2017 Nemenčinė Biathlon Stadium was opened and become a second operating Biathlon course in Lithuania (first being Ignalina Winter Sports Centre).Atidaryta biatlono šaudykla ir rekonstruotas Nemenčinės stadionas
/ref>

People

* Zdzisław Balicki, Polish

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

deputy * Miroslava Ritskiavitchius, Lithuanian handball player that represented Germany at 1996 Olympics

References

External links

Virtual Tour of Nemenčinė
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemencine Cities in Lithuania Cities in Vilnius County Holocaust locations in Lithuania Vilnius District Municipality