47 Fun Facts About Lithuania

What is the capital and largest city of Lithuania?

Vilnius is Lithuania's capital and largest city; its Old Town, one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

Who united the Lithuanian lands and was crowned the first and only King of Lithuania in 1253?

Mindaugas was crowned Lithuania's first and only king on 6 July 1253, a date Lithuania observes as Statehood Day; after his assassination in 1263 the country reverted to paganism.

At its 15th-century peak, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania held what distinction?

Under Vytautas the Great the Grand Duchy of Lithuania reached its greatest extent around 1430, stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea as the largest country in Europe.

Which grand duke is credited with founding the capital after dreaming of an iron wolf on a hill?

Gediminas, grand duke from about 1316 to 1341, is credited in legend with founding Vilnius after dreaming of a howling iron wolf; his Gediminid descendants later ruled Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

At which 1410 battle did Polish–Lithuanian forces under Jogaila and Vytautas crush the Teutonic Order?

The Battle of Grunwald, Žalgiris to Lithuanians, was fought on 15 July 1410; Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen died on the field and the Teutonic Order never recovered its dominance.

Lithuania was officially Christianised in which year, making it the last pagan state in Europe to convert?

Lithuania's official Christianisation came in 1387, the year after Jogaila's baptism and coronation as King of Poland; the Samogitian region followed only in 1413.

The 1569 union that created the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was signed in which city?

The Union of Lublin was signed in Lublin on 1 July 1569 under pressure from Sigismund II Augustus; Lithuania kept its own laws, treasury and army within the joint state.

The 3 May 1791 constitution is usually ranked as the world's what modern written constitution?

The Constitution of 3 May 1791 is usually ranked as Europe's first and the world's second modern written constitution, after the United States' of 1787; the Third Partition erased the Commonwealth in 1795.

Which power annexed most of Lithuania in the partitions completed in 1795?

Prussia took the Užnemunė region; the Kościuszko Uprising and a brief recapture of Vilnius in 1794 had failed.

After the 1863 uprising, Tsarist authorities imposed what measure against the local culture?

The Lithuanian press ban of 1864 to 1904 outlawed printing Lithuanian in the Latin alphabet; book smugglers known as knygnešiai defied it, and it helped spark the Lithuanian National Revival.

On what date in 1918 did the Council of Lithuania sign the Act of Independence?

The Council of Lithuania signed the Act of Independence in Vilnius on 16 February 1918, proclaiming a democratic state; the date is kept as Lithuania's State Restoration Day.

Which city served as Lithuania's temporary capital between the wars after Poland seized the historic one?

Kaunas served as the temporary capital from 1920 to 1939 after Żeligowski's mutiny of October 1920 set up a puppet Central Lithuania around Vilnius, which Poland absorbed in 1922.

Who led the authoritarian regime installed by Lithuania's 1926 coup?

Antanas Smetona was made president after the December 1926 coup and ruled until the Soviet occupation of June 1940; his government tried Memel Nazis in Kaunas in the 1934-35 Neumann-Sass case.

Of roughly 220,000 Jews living in Lithuania in June 1941, how many were killed in the Holocaust?

Almost all were killed: roughly 195,000 of Lithuania's Jews, more than 90 per cent, were murdered by 1944, mostly in mass shootings at sites such as Ponary and Kaunas's Ninth Fort.

Organised Lithuanian partisan resistance to Soviet rule was effectively crushed in which year?

Organised partisan warfare was effectively crushed by 1953, when commander Jonas Žemaitis was captured; he was executed in 1954 and his successor Adolfas Ramanauskas in 1957, though isolated fighters held out into the 1960s.

How many civilians were killed by Soviet forces in the capital during the January Events of 1991?

14 civilians died when Soviet troops stormed the Vilnius TV tower and broadcasting centre on 13 January 1991, and about 700 were injured; the Medininkai border-post massacre that July killed seven officers.

Which movement, founded in the late 1980s, led Lithuania's drive to restore independence?

Sąjūdis, the Reform Movement of Lithuania founded in June 1988 and chaired by Vytautas Landsbergis, won the 1990 elections and drove the 11 March declaration; it helped organise the Baltic Way human chain of August 1989.

Who became Lithuania's first directly elected president after independence, in 1993?

Algirdas Brazauskas, the former Communist Party leader, won the February 1993 election to become Lithuania's first directly elected president; the last Russian troops withdrew on 31 August 1993.

Lithuania joined NATO and the European Union in which year?

Lithuania joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 May 2004 alongside Latvia and Estonia; it entered the Schengen Area in December 2007.

Lithuania replaced its litas with the euro on 1 January of which year?

Lithuania adopted the euro on 1 January 2015, the last of the three Baltic states to do so; the litas, reintroduced in June 1993, was exchanged at 3.4528 to the euro.

What are the three colours of Lithuania's flag, top to bottom?

The tricolour is yellow, green and red from top to bottom, often read as sun, forests and the blood of patriots; adopted on 25 April 1918, its ratio changed from 1:2 to 3:5 in 2004.

Lithuania's coat of arms, an armoured knight on horseback, is known by what name?

Vytis, the charging knight with sword and shield, has represented Lithuania since the late 14th century, appearing on a seal of Grand Duke Algirdas in 1366, and was restored as the state arms in 1990.

Lithuanian is considered the most conservative living language of which family?

It retains many features of Proto-Indo-European and is closely related to Latvian, though the two are not mutually intelligible.

What is Lithuania's highest point, at 294 m?

Aukštojas Hill, measured at 293.84 m in 2004, replaced neighbouring Juozapinė Hill (292.7 m) as Lithuania's highest point; both lie in the Medininkai Highlands south-east of Vilnius.

What is the longest river in Lithuania?

The Nemunas, roughly 900 km long with some 475 km inside Lithuania, is the country's main river, flowing past Kaunas into the Curonian Lagoon; its delta forms a regional park rich in birdlife.

Where did a 1989 calculation by France's national geographic institute place the centre of Europe?

Jean-George Affholder of France's IGN computed the centre of Europe in 1989 at 54°54′N 25°19′E, about 26 km north of Vilnius near the village of Purnuškės, where a monument marks the spot.

Which river flows through the centre of Vilnius?

The Neris runs through the heart of Vilnius below Gediminas Hill and joins the Nemunas at Kaunas; at about 510 km it is the Nemunas's largest tributary.

Which Russian exclave borders Lithuania to the south-west?

Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave that was German East Prussia until 1945, borders Lithuania along the lower Nemunas and the Curonian Spit; Lithuania's other neighbours are Latvia, Belarus and Poland.

The Hill of Crosses, a pilgrimage site near Šiauliai, held roughly how many crosses by 2006?

Estimates put about 100,000 crosses on the hill by 2006, up from some 55,000 in 1990; the first were probably planted after the 1831 uprising, and Soviet bulldozers levelled the site repeatedly from 1961.

Trakai Island Castle, completed around 1409, stands on an island in which body of water?

Trakai Island Castle stands on an island in Lake Galvė, west of Vilnius; Kęstutis began it in the 14th century and his son Vytautas the Great completed it around 1409 and died at Trakai in 1430.

Kernavė, a UNESCO site since 2004, was what in Lithuania's medieval history?

Kernavė, on the Neris north-west of Vilnius, was an early capital of the Grand Duchy in the 13th century; its complex of five hill-forts was inscribed by UNESCO in 2004.

The capital's university was founded in 1579 by which grand duke and king of Poland?

Stephen Báthory granted the founding privilege for Vilnius University in 1579, when the Jesuit college became an academy and one of the oldest universities in northern Europe; Russia closed it in 1832 after the November Uprising.

The capital's bohemian district of Užupis declared itself an independent republic on which date in 1997?

Užupis, whose name means 'beyond the river', proclaimed its tongue-in-cheek republic on 1 April 1997, April Fools' Day, complete with a constitution, a president and its own flag.

The world's first bronze memorial to which American musician was installed in Vilnius in 1995?

Frank Zappa's bronze bust, sculpted by Konstantinas Bogdanas and unveiled in 1995 on Kalinausko Street, was the world's first memorial to the musician, who never visited Lithuania.

Lithuania's national potato dumplings take their name from what?

Cepelinai take their name from Count Zeppelin's airships, whose elongated shape the stuffed potato dumplings resemble; traditionally filled with minced meat, curd cheese or mushrooms, they are served with sour cream and bacon bits.

Lithuania's classic chilled summer soup is made from what?

Šaltibarščiai is a cold beetroot soup: grated cooked beets, cucumber, dill and spring onion stirred into kefir, served with hot boiled potatoes on the side.

Which Lithuanian painter and composer, born in 1875, wrote the symphonic poem The Sea?

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911) painted some 300 symbolist works and composed the symphonic poems In the Forest and The Sea; the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art in Kaunas holds his work.

How many EuroBasket titles did Lithuania win between 1937 and 2003?

Lithuania won EuroBasket three times: in 1937 in Riga, in 1939 as hosts in Kaunas, and in 2003 in Sweden, where it beat Spain in the final.

Which two Lithuanian basketball players are inductees of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame?

Arvydas Sabonis was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and Šarūnas Marčiulionis in 2014; both starred for the Soviet team that won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna won Olympic gold for Lithuania at which two Games?

Virgilijus Alekna won discus gold at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, adding bronze at Beijing 2008; his son Mykolas Alekna broke the discus world record in April 2024.

Rūta Meilutytė won swimming gold at London 2012 at what age?

Rūta Meilutytė was 15 when she won the 100 m breaststroke at London 2012, the first Olympic swimming gold for independent Lithuania; she added world titles in 2013 and 2023.

How many counties is Lithuania divided into?

Lithuania has 10 counties (apskritys), each named after its principal city, such as Vilnius, Kaunas and Šiauliai; they contain 60 municipalities and about 546 elderships.

Which Lithuanian company makes the PHAROS and TOPAS femtosecond laser systems?

Šviesos konversija (Light Conversion), a Vilnius University spin-off founded in 1994, builds the PHAROS industrial femtosecond lasers and TOPAS optical parametric amplifiers used in laboratories worldwide.

The Ignalina nuclear plant's closure, a condition of EU entry, turned Lithuania into what?

Closing Ignalina's two RBMK reactors (Unit 1 in 2004, Unit 2 at the end of 2009) turned Lithuania from an electricity exporter into an electricity importer; a 2012 referendum saw about 63% reject a new plant at Visaginas.

How many members sit in the Seimas, Lithuania's unicameral parliament?

The Seimas has 141 members elected for four-year terms: 71 in single-member constituencies and 70 by nationwide proportional representation with a 5% threshold for parties.

What name was given to the LNG import terminal built at Klaipėda in 2014 to break Gazprom's monopoly?

The floating storage and regasification vessel Independence, leased from Norway's Höegh LNG, arrived at Klaipėda in October 2014 and began operating in December, ending Gazprom's monopoly on gas supply to Lithuania.

How long did the Soviet economic blockade of Lithuania last in 1990 before it was lifted?

The blockade lasted 74 days, from 18 April until 2 July 1990, cutting oil and gas supplies; Moscow lifted it after the Supreme Council agreed to a 100-day moratorium on the independence act.