Utena,
one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, is related to the
Narkunai castle-mound that is often mentioned in the chronicles
of swordsmen. A letter of king Mindaugas in 1261, first
mentioned a wooden castle by the Utenele river. According to the
story, that castle was built by the Duke Utenis. Utena residents
named the city's central square and a regional newspaper after
this duke.
Utena was established along the Utenele river in the 14th
century. By 1416 the first church had been built and merchants
and tradesmen had settled here to live. During the crusades,
Utena and its surroundings were terribly ravaged and in 1433 the
castle of Utena was destroyed.
The Warsaw-St. Petersburg highway built in 1835 was of major
importance to the town and a large post-office station
established. In 1889 the narrow gauge railway
Svencioneliai-Panevezys was built changing the face of the town.
The town developed and grew very fast. Houses were built very
close together and in 1879 there was a fire in which, ľ of the
town was burned. Until the 1st world war, Utena was the
regional center for northeastern Lithuania. In 1924, Utena was
designated as a secondary town with its own Burgomaster.
Now Utena town is the the center of Utena district and Utena
county. We have two lakes, Dauniškis and Vyžuonaitis, and the
streams of Utenele, Krasuona, Viesa, Rase wind their ways
through our town.
The area of Utena region is 1229 sq. km, 368,7 sq. km of which,
is covered by forest . The region is located mostly in the
Aukstaiciu hills, the northwestern part of the region on the
Aukštaičių plateau. The land of Utena attracts people by the
natural beauty of its hills, hollows and forests and clarity of
its lakes. There are 186 lakes of various sizes throughout the
region including, the deepest in Lithuania, lake Tauragnas
(60,5m), one of the longest in the country, lake Aisetas (16 km)
and beautiful lake Alaušas so loved by holidaymakers (10,73 km2
).
It doesn’t matter which route you take, whether from Vilnius,
Kaunas or Kupiškis, the closer you come to Utena, the more the
land seems to be moving with joy and the hills and fields
rolling like waves. Each little hill gives way to another, the
wetlands are full of flowers and birds and groves of of oak and
birch trees whisper to one another in the breeze.
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