Valkininkai ( lit. Valkininkai ; Polish. Olkieniki [1] , Olkeniki [2] ) - a place in the Varensky district of the Alytus county of Lithuania , the center of the Valkininki elder with an area of 15604 hectares with 17 villages and 1945 inhabitants. [3] . It is located 26 km from Varena , at an equal distance of 55 km from Vilnius and Alytus at the intersection of the A4 Vilnius - Varena - Grodno motorway and the Varena-Matuyzos-Valkininkai highway, at the confluence of the Šalčia and Gialuza rivers into the Merkis.
| Place | |||
| Valkininkai | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| lit. Valkininkai | |||
| |||
| A country |  Lithuania | ||
| County | Alytus | ||
| Area | Varensky | ||
| History and Geography | |||
| First mention | |||
| Place with | 1571 | ||
| Center height | |||
| Population | |||
| Population | 229 people ( 2011 ) | ||
| Digital identifiers | |||
| Postcode | LT-65063 | ||
Content
General characteristics
In the center of the town there are several small quarters, at the intersection of four main streets - an irregularly shaped square. In the old part of the city, one-story wooden houses dominate at the end of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries . There is a nursery garden "Aguonėlė" library, post office. Catholic church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (built in 1823 - 1837 , expanded in 1898 ) with 5 wooden baroque statues (XVIII century), a bell (cast in 1867 ), valuable paintings from the second half of the XVIII century - XIX century .
To the west of Valkininkai is the village of Naujeyi-Valkininkai, which exceeds Valkininkai in population (grew during the construction of the Vilnius-Grodno railway).
History
The settlement has been known since the 14th century . There was a hunting castle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. In the sources in 1418, the first references to the estate and the town are dated (in 1418 the Grand Duke Vytautas presented the town named after the town together with the estate to his second wife Ulyana Golshanskaya [4] ). In 1503 it is referred to as a volost, in 1516 - a city. [5] . In 1571 (or 1581 [4] ) he received Magdeburg rights. In 1792, the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stanislav Augustus Poniatowski re-granted the rights of the city and the coat of arms. [3]
At the beginning of the XVI century a parish was established. In 1529 - 1567 it was mentioned in the lists of unprivileged cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1551, a workshop for the production of firearms was founded, in 1655 it was abolished. In 1608 or 1609, a Franciscan monastery was founded, closed in 1832 and in 1839 adapted for barracks; in 1941-1944 in the buildings of the former monastery was a prisoner of war camp.
Olkeniks suffered greatly during the internal wars of the nobles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the battles of the Swedish and Russian troops in 1706, and the French invasion of 1812 . [five]
From the second half of the 17th century , Jews began to settle here. In the XVIII century a wooden synagogue was built, rebuilt in 1801 and burned in 1941.
Since 1777, a parish school operated. In the middle of the XIX century, a state parish school was founded. In 1863, the place was occupied by rebels, in the vicinity of it there was a clash with Russian troops.
In 1884 - 1892, the priest and book-maker Silvestras Gimzauskas served in the town. At the end of the XIX century - the first half of the XX century, Valkininkai was the center of the volost. In 1920 - 1939, Valkinikai was first part of Middle Lithuania , then, like the entire Vilnius Region , as part of the Polish state.
On September 27, 1941, by order of the Nazi occupation authorities, 105 Jewish families from Valkininka (about four hundred people) were executed in Eišiškės . In 1945-1946 , in the vicinity of the town, anti-Soviet partisan detachments "Geležinio vilko" , "Merkio rinktinės" operated . In the Soviet period, Valkininkai was the center of the apilinka, the central estate of the collective farm.
Coat of Arms
The standard of the current coat of arms was created by the artist Taida Balčiūnaitė, based on privilege data of Stanislav Augustus , which, in addition to the description, has an image and records in the Lithuanian metric . The Heraldic Commission of Lithuania tested the coat of arms on February 11, 1993 . The current coat of arms represents on the red heraldic shield of a golden lion facing left. His teeth, claws and tongue are silver. The shield is framed by two laurel branches with red berries. [5] [6]
Population
In 1765 there were 272 inhabitants, in 1790 - 949, in 1841 - 1516, in 1897 - 2619 (1126 of them were Jews), in 1919 - 1244, in 1931 - 1596, in 1959 - 769, in 1970 - 410, in 1979 - 1082, in 1989 - 264, in 2001 - 238 inhabitants.
Notes
- ↑ Olkieniki .
- ↑ Olkeniks // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 Valkininkų seniūnija .
- ↑ 1 2 Valkininkų urbanistikos kompleksas .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Valkininkai .
- ↑ Valkininkų herbas (lit.) (Inaccessible link) . Varėnos rajono savivaldybė . Varėnos rajono savivaldybė. Date of treatment November 20, 2017. Archived November 21, 2017.
Links
- Valkininkai (lit.) . Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija . Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras (December 16, 2013). Date of treatment November 19, 2017.
- Valkininkų seniūnija (lit.) . Varėnos rajono savivaldybė . Varėnos rajono savivaldybė. Date of treatment November 19, 2017.
- Valkininkų urbanistikos kompleksas (lit.) (Inaccessible link) . Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija . Kultūros paveldo departamentas. Date of treatment November 19, 2017. Archived July 31, 2016.
- Olkieniki (Polish) . Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich . Kultūros paveldo departamentas. Date of treatment November 19, 2017.
- Olkeniks // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.