Ukmerge district municipality
Encyclopedia
The Ukmergė district municipality is a municipality in Vilnius County
Vilnius County
Vilnius County is the largest of the 10 counties of Lithuania, located in the east of the country around the city Vilnius. On 1 July 2010, the county administration was abolished, and since that date, Vilnius County remains as the territorial and statistical unit.-History:Until the Partitions of...

, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. The capital of the municipality is Ukmergė
Ukmerge
-Early history:Ukmergė was first mentioned as a settlement in 1333. It was essentially a wooden fortress that stood on a hill, near the confluence of the Vilkmergė River and the Šventoji River. Ukmergė was attacked by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order in 1333, 1365, 1378, 1386, and even...

, the largest settlement and only city in the municipality. The entire municipality belongs to Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from the relatively high elevation of the region, particularly the eastern parts.-Geography:...

 ethnographic region
Regions of Lithuania
Lithuania can be divided into historical and cultural regions . The exact borders are not fully clear, as the regions are not official political or administrative units. They are delimited by culture, such as country traditions, traditional lifestyle, songs, tales, etc. To some extent regions...

.

Settlements

There are 10 town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

s in Ukmergė municipality: Deltuva
Deltuva
Deltuva is a small town in Ukmergė district, Vilnius County, Lithuania. It is located 6 km north-west of Ukmergė, near the road to Kėdainiai...

, Lyduokiai, Pabaiskas
Pabaiskas
Pabaiskas is a small town in Ukmergė district of Vilnius County, Lithuania, south-west of Ukmergė, with 249 inhabitants. The Battle of Pabaiskas took place here in 1435, when Sigismund Kestutaitis defeated Švitrigaila and his Livonian Order allies...

, Siesikai, Šešuoliai, Taujėnai, Vepriai
Vepriai
Vepriai is the largest town in Ukmergė district, Lithuania, situated south-west of Ukmergė with population of about 1,000 . The capital of Vepriai elderate.-History:Vepriai was founded on a hill near Vepriai Lake and south of Šventoji River...

, Vidiškiai, Želva
Želva
Želva is a town in Ukmergė district municipality, Vilnius County, east Lithuania. According to the 2001 census, the town has a population of 516 people. The town has a Catholic church and a synagogue. Želva is the birthplace of Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Aaron Klug....

 and Žemaitkiemis. Ukmergė municipality shares the second place in Lithuania (with Radviliškis district municipality
Radviliškis district municipality
Radviliškis district municipality is one of the seven municipalities of Šiauliai County in Lithuania. Radviliškis town has been its center since 1950.Radviliškis district has 13 subdivisions or elderships .-Industry:...

) according to the number of towns. There are 612 village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

s in the municipality.

Vepriai
Vepriai
Vepriai is the largest town in Ukmergė district, Lithuania, situated south-west of Ukmergė with population of about 1,000 . The capital of Vepriai elderate.-History:Vepriai was founded on a hill near Vepriai Lake and south of Šventoji River...

 is the most populous town in the municipality and is a local tourism (notably rural tourism
Rural tourism
Rural tourism focuses on participating in a rural lifestyle. It can be a variant of ecotourism. Any village can be a tourist attraction, and many villagers are very hospitable. Agriculture is becoming highly mechanized and therefore requires less manual labor...

) center. Siesikai is best known for the 16th century Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

 Siesikai (Daumantai) Castle
Siesikai Castle
Siesikai Castle is the residential castle near Siesikai, Ukmergė district, Lithuania.The castle on the Siesikai Lake was built by Gabrielius Daumantas-Siesickis in the 16th century in the Renaissance style. His heirs were known as Daumantai, also called Siesicki, had given their family name to the...

 near Siesikai Lake. Deltuva has been the centre of the important Deltuva Land at the emergence of the centralised Lithuanian State
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...

. The ruins
Ruins
Ruins are the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete, as time went by, have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction...

 of one of the first Calvinist churches in Lithuania (17th century, Renaissance style
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

) are near Deltuva. Pabaiskas was established near the location where the notorious Battle of Pabaiskas
Battle of Pabaiskas
The Battle of Pabaiskas took place on September 1, 1435 near Ukmergė , by the Šventoji River in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania...

 between the armies led by Žygimantas Kęstutaitis and Švitrigaila
Švitrigaila
Švitrigaila Švitrigaila Švitrigaila (ca 1370 – 10 February 1452; was the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1430 to 1432. He spent most of his life in largely unsuccessful dynastic struggles against his cousins Vytautas and Sigismund Kęstutaitis.-Struggle against Vytautas:...

 has taken place on 1 September 1435.

The first president of the independent Lithuanian state Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona was one of the most important Lithuanian political figures between World War I and World War II. He served as the first President of Lithuania from April 4, 1919 to June 19, 1920. He again served as the last President of the country from December 19, 1926 to June 15, 1940, before...

 was born in Užulėnis, now Ukmergė District.

Geography

The eastern part of the municipality belongs to Aukštaitijan Highlands
Highland (geography)
The term highland or upland is used to denote any mountainous region or elevated mountainous plateau. Generally speaking, the term upland tends to be used for ranges of hills, typically up to 500-600m, and highland for ranges of low mountains.The Scottish Highlands refers to the mountainous...

 and the north-western part is in Middle Lithuanian Lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...

s.

Šventoji River
Šventoji River
The Šventoji River is the longest river that flows entirely within Lithuania and the largest tributary of the Neris River. It originates from the Lake Samanis in the Gražutė Regional Park and flows into Neris near Jonava. The longest tributary of the Šventoji is the Širvinta River.The Šventoji...

 is the largest river in the municipality and Širvinta River
Širvinta River
The Širvinta is a river in Lithuania. Stretching for 129 km, it is the longest tributary of the Šventoji River. Its source is in the hinterlands of the Širvintos district. After it passes through the city of Širvintos, where a low head dam has been built, it continues through the Ukmergė district,...

 is the second. The other rivers are Siesartis, Mūša and Armona. Lake Lėnas is the largest lake (2.65 km²) and Lake Žirnajai is the deepest (average of 9.8 meters).

Woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

s cover about 29 percents of the district, swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s occupy 2.3 percent and 54.5 percent is an arable land
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...

.

See also

  • List of municipalities in Lithuania
  • Subdivisions of Lithuania
  • Counties of Lithuania
    Counties of Lithuania
    The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties , all named after their capitals. The counties are divided into 60 municipalities : 9 city municipalities, 43 district municipalities and 8 municipalities...

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