Švenčionėliai

Švenčionėliai
Village
Švenčionėliai panorama
Coat of arms
Švenčionėliai Location of Švenčionėliai
Coordinates: 55°10′N 26°0′E
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Aukštaitija
County	Vilnius County
Municipality	Švenčionys district municipality
Eldership	Švenčionėliai eldership
Capital of	Švenčionėliai eldership
First mentioned	End of the 16th century
Granted village rights	1920
Area
• Total	6 km2 (2 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	4,748
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Švenčionėliai (pronunciation^ⓘ) is a city in Švenčionys district municipality, in eastern Lithuania 10 km west of Švenčionys. The river Žeimena flows through Švenčionėliai.

History

Early-20th-century view of the railway station

On 10 July 1920, it was the site of a battle of the Polish–Soviet War, won by the Russians. Afterwards, in the interwar period, Nowe Święciany, as it was known in Polish, was administratively located in the Święciany County in the Wilno Voivodeship of Poland.

After the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by the Soviets, who handed it over to Lithuania, to eventually re-occupy it in 1940, then from 1941 it was occupied by Nazi Germany and in 1944 it was re-occupied by the Soviet Union. In 1940, there were around 1,000 Jews, i.e. 20 percent of the total population. All of them were murdered in October 1941 in the Švenčionėliai massacre.