Vilkija

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title: "Vilkija" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cities-in-kaunas-county", "cities-in-lithuania", "holocaust-locations-in-lithuania"] topic_path: "geography" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilkija" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement "]

Field	Value
name	Vilkija
settlement_type	Town
pushpin_map	Lithuania
pushpin_label_position
pushpin_map_caption	Location of Vilkija
image_skyline	Vilkija prie Nemuno.JPG
image_shield	Vilkija COA.jpg
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name
subdivision_type1	Ethnographic region
subdivision_name1	Aukštaitija
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	[[Image:LTU Kauno apskritis flag.svg
subdivision_type3	Municipality
subdivision_name3	Kaunas district municipality
subdivision_type4	Eldership
subdivision_name4	Vilkija eldership
subdivision_type6	Capital of
subdivision_name6	Vilkija eldership
established_date	1364
established_title	First mentioned
established_date2	1792
established_title2	Granted city rights
population_total	1,738
population_as_of	2022
timezone	EET
utc_offset	+2
timezone_DST	EEST
utc_offset_DST	+3
::

Vilkija () is a town in the Kaunas district municipality, Lithuania. It is located 21 km north-west of Kaunas city municipality, right on the north side of the river Nemunas, the most important river in Lithuania.

Etymology

The exact origin of the town name is not known, but it is derived from the Lithuanian word vilkas (which means wolf). According to a legend, people who lived on the opposite side of Nemunas river heard the packs of wolves howling in the surroundings of the place where contemporary town is situated; since then, this land was called Vilkija and this name may have been derived from words vilkų gauja meaning a pack of wolves.

Names in other languages include ; .

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Senoji_Vilkija.jpg" caption="Vilkija in 1928"] ::

Vilkija was first mention in chronicles in 1364 as Wilkenbethe. In 1369, Vilkija Castle (or Paštuva Castle, near the current village of Jaučakiai village) was destroyed. On 2 September 1430 September, Vilkija is mentioned by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas in a letter to the Teutonic master Paul von Rusdorf. In 1450, the first Lithuanian customs house on the Nemunas near Vilkija is mentioned in the documents of Gdańsk merchants. The land and water trade routes Vilnius-Königsberg passed through Vilkija, which encouraged the growth of the settlement.

During World War II, the town was under Soviet occupation from 1940, and then under German occupation from 1941 to 1944. During summer and fall 1941, mass executions of 800 Jews were perpetrated by an Einsatzgruppen of Germans and Lithuanian nationalists. Murdered Jews were from Vilkija and nearby villages.

Notable people

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Vilkijos_bažnyčia.JPG" caption="Church in Vilkija"] ::

Folklorist Antanas Juška (1819–1880) lived in Vilkija 1862–1864.
In the end of 1863 one of the revolt leaders Antanas Mackevičius (1828–1863) was captured close to Vilkija and later taken to Kaunas to be executed.
Writer Petras Cvirka (1909–1947) studied in Vilkija 1922–1926.
Basketball player Vytenis Lipkevičius (1989–) was born in Vilkija.

References

(28 January 2012). "Lietuvos miestų pavadinimų kilmė – tik upės ir pavardės?".
"Vilkijos istorija".
"Holocaust Atlas of Lithuania".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::