50 Fun Facts About Lithuania

What is the capital and largest city of Lithuania?

It is the most populous city in the Baltic states, and its Old Town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994.

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

He was crowned a Catholic king on 6 July, still celebrated as Statehood Day; after his assassination in 1263 Lithuania returned to paganism.

By the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania held what distinction?

It grew to about 650,000 km2 by absorbing East Slavic lands after the Mongol invasions weakened Kievan Rus'.

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

He ruled from about 1316 to 1341, and his Gediminid dynasty went on to rule Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

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

Lithuanians call it Žalgiris; Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen died on the field.

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

Catholicism has been the main religion ever since; rulers' bodies had been cremated until the conversion.

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

Sigismund II Augustus pushed the deal through; Lithuania kept its own laws and seal within the joint state.

The Great Sejm's constitution of 3 May 1791 was Europe's first and the world's what?

The Commonwealth was wiped from the map four years later in the Third Partition.

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?

Vilnius University had already been shut in 1832; the ban helped spark the Lithuanian National Revival.

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

It restored a democratic republic with Vilnius as capital; women voted for the first time in 1919.

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

Żeligowski's mutiny in 1920 set up a puppet Central Lithuania that Poland absorbed in 1922.

The 1923 revolt that united which port region with Lithuania?

Lithuania was forced to hand the region to Nazi Germany in 1939 under a German ultimatum.

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

In 1934–35 his Lithuania held Europe's first mass trial of Nazis.

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

Vilnius had been so important a Jewish centre that Napoleon dubbed it "the Jerusalem of the North" in 1812.

Lithuanian partisan resistance to Soviet occupation was finally suppressed in which year?

Their chairman Jonas Žemaitis was executed in 1954 and his successor Adolfas Ramanauskas in 1957.

On 11 March 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to do what?

The Soviets answered with an economic blockade from 20 April 1990.

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

More than 140 were injured as crowds defended the TV tower and parliament; the Medininkai Massacre that July killed 7 border guards.

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

It took part in the 1989 Baltic Way human chain across the three Baltic states.

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

The last Russian troops left the country later that year, on 31 August 1993.

Lithuania joined NATO and the European Union in which year?

It joined Schengen in 2007 and swapped the litas for the euro on 1 January 2015.

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

The litas had circulated since 1993.

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

It was adopted on 25 April 1918; the 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?

In use since the early 15th century, it is among the oldest heraldic symbols in Europe.

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.

The first Lithuanian grammar, Grammatica Litvanica, was published in 1653 in which language?

Danielius Kleinas wrote it; Jonas Jablonskis later standardised the modern language.

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

The country is flat and watery, with more than 3,000 lakes, mostly in the northeast.

Which is Lithuania's main and longest river, whose basin covers 74% of the country?

It carries international shipping and its delta park hosts more than 300 bird species.

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

Jean-George Affholder fixed it at 54°54′N 25°19′E after re-estimating the continent's boundaries.

The 98-km Curonian Spit, a UNESCO site of giant dunes, is shared by Lithuania and which country?

The southern half lies in Kaliningrad Oblast; the resort of Nida sits on the Lithuanian side.

Lithuania's only commercial cargo port and warm-water harbour is which city?

It sits at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon and gained the region's first large LNG import terminal in 2014.

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

The first crosses were probably planted after the 1831 uprising, and the hill symbolised resistance to Soviet religious persecution.

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

Kęstutis began it and his son Vytautas the Great finished it and died there in 1430.

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

The stream Lietava nearby is usually credited as the source of the country's name.

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

It is one of the oldest universities in northern Europe; the Russians shut it in 1832 after the November Uprising.

The capital's bohemian district of Užupis declared itself an independent republic on which date in 1998?

The choice of April Fools' Day underlines the artists' republic's preference for humour; its name means "beyond the river".

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

It stands in the Naujamiestis district; Vilnius is also called the capital of Eastern European Baroque.

Cepelinai, Lithuania's national dish, are potato dumplings renamed in 1900 in honour of what?

Originally called didžkukuliai, or dumb-bells, they are stuffed with meat, curd cheese, liver or mushrooms.

Šaltibarščiai, the bright pink Lithuanian summer soup, is made from what?

Other traditional soups include boletus, cabbage, beer and milk soups.

Which 19th-century painter and composer is perhaps Lithuania's most renowned artist?

A symbolist and art nouveau figure, he has a national art museum in Kaunas.

How many times has Lithuania's national team won the EuroBasket?

The titles came in 1937, 1939 and 2003; BC Žalgiris of Kaunas won the Euroleague in 1999.

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

Sabonis's son Domantas and Jonas Valančiūnas play in the NBA today.

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

He added bronze in Beijing and is independent Lithuania's most successful Olympian.

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

Lithuania has won 26 Olympic medals in all, including 6 golds.

How many counties is Lithuania divided into?

They contain 60 municipalities and 546 elderships, and there are five cultural regions such as Samogitia and Dzūkija.

Which Lithuanian company's femtosecond laser system holds about 80% of the world market?

Lasers and biotechnology are flagship fields; a Vilnius University centre has one of the most powerful femtosecond lasers in the world.

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

Unit 1 shut in 2004, and a 2012 referendum saw 63% reject a new plant at Visaginas.

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

71 are elected in single-member constituencies and the rest by nationwide proportional representation.

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

It was the first large-scale LNG terminal in the Baltic region.

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

The blockade followed the 11 March 1990 declaration restoring independence.