Dieveniškės

Dieveniškės
Town
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Coat of arms of Dieveniškės Coat of arms
Dieveniškės is located in Lithuania Dieveniškės Location of Dieveniškės
Coordinates:
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Dzūkija
County	Vilnius County
Municipality	Šalčininkai district municipality
Eldership	Dieveniškės eldership
First mentioned	1385
Population (2001)
• Total	916
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)

Dieveniškės (literally: Gods' place, Polish: Dziewieniszki, Belarusian: Дзевянішкі) is a town in the Vilnius County of Lithuania, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the Belarusian border in the so-called Dieveniškės appendix. It is surrounded by the Dieveniškės Regional Park.

History

File:Dieveniskes Jewish cemetery.jpg

Jewish cemetery of the town.

The estate of Dieveniškės was first mentioned in 1385 as a village of a Lithuanian noble Mykolas Mingaila, possibly the son of Gedgaudas, later ruled by the Goštautai family. Stanislovas Goštautas visited Dieveniškės with his wife Barbara Radziwill, who used to pray in Dieveniškės church, built in the 16th century. According to the 1897 census, 75% of the village population were jewish. The shtetl had 2 synagogues. The Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in Lithuania.