Joniškis | |
|---|---|
City | |
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 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Joniškis Location of Joniškis | |
| Coordinates:56°14′0″N23°36′0″E / 56.23333°N 23.60000°E /56.23333; 23.60000 | |
| Country |  Lithuania |
| Ethnographic region | Aukštaitija |
| County | Šiauliai County |
| Municipality | Joniškis District Municipality |
| Eldership | Joniškis eldership |
| Capital of | Joniškis District Municipality Joniškis eldership |
| First mentioned | 1526 |
| Grantedcity rights | 1616 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Vitalijus Gailius |
| Population (2022) | |
• Total | 8,455 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Website | joniskis |
Joniškis (pronunciationⓘ;Samogitian:Juonėškis;Polish:Janiszki) is a city in northernLithuania with a population of about 9,900. It is located 39 kilometers north ofŠiauliai and 14 kilometers south of the Lithuania–Latvia border. Joniškis is the municipal and administrative centre ofJoniškis district municipality.
Joniškis is theLithuanian name of the town. Historical versions of the name in other languages includePolish:Janiszki,Russian: ЯнишкиYanishki,Yiddish: יאַנישאָקYanishok,Latvian:Jānišķe, and German:Jonischken.
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Joniškis was established in the beginning of the 16th century. It was mentioned in written sources on 23 February 1536 whenBishops of Vilnius andSamogitia visited the area and found that people still practiced theold pagan faith. People were worshiping the God of Thunder (Perkūnas), fire, snakes and other pagan deities. The bishop of Vilnius,John of the Lithuanian Dukes baptized the locals and established a new parish on 23 February 1536. A wooden church was built and the town of Joniškis was built around it. The bishop of Vilnius named the town Joniškis after his own name Jonas. Joniškis was on the crossroad of important trade roads.[1] It was located in theDuchy of Samogitia in theGrand Duchy of Lithuania within thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
During World War II, the town was under Soviet occupation from 1940, and then underGerman occupation from 1941 to 1944. In late 1941, 148 Jewish men were shot near Joniškis in the nearby forest. The remaining Jews (men, women and children) were murdered in the forest in September 1941. 493 people were murdered in total by anEinsatzgruppen of Joniškis policemen and Lithuanian nationalists supervised by the Germans.[2]
With the Church of the Accession of the Holy Virgin Mary (founded in 1901) and a complex of two Jewish synagogues – The Red Synagogue (built in 1897) and The White Synagogue (built in 1823) – at its center, the town has the status of an urban architectural heritage site.[3]
Arailway line connectingRiga andŠiauliai runs along the western boundary of the town. West of the railway are the town's allotment gardens, the Lutheran Cemetery and the Cemetery for the Victims of World War II. Joniškis has two waterreservoirs formed by dams on the River Sidabra. Joniškis has theJonas Avyžius Public Library of Joniškis District Municipality, the Basketball Museum and a large animal compound feed manufacturing plant "Joniškio Grūdai".
Joniškis has a warm-summerhumid continental climate (Dfb in theKöppen climate classification).
| Climate data for Joniškis | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −1.4 (29.5) | −0.4 (31.3) | 4.5 (40.1) | 11.6 (52.9) | 17.2 (63.0) | 20.2 (68.4) | 22.7 (72.9) | 21.6 (70.9) | 16.9 (62.4) | 10.1 (50.2) | 5 (41) | 1.2 (34.2) | 10.8 (51.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.5 (25.7) | −2.9 (26.8) | 0.8 (33.4) | 7 (45) | 12.7 (54.9) | 16.2 (61.2) | 18.8 (65.8) | 17.8 (64.0) | 13.3 (55.9) | 7.5 (45.5) | 3.3 (37.9) | −0.4 (31.3) | 7.5 (45.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −5.8 (21.6) | −5.7 (21.7) | −2.8 (27.0) | 2.1 (35.8) | 7.4 (45.3) | 11.3 (52.3) | 14.4 (57.9) | 13.8 (56.8) | 9.8 (49.6) | 4.9 (40.8) | 1.4 (34.5) | −2.2 (28.0) | 4.1 (39.3) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 45 (1.8) | 40 (1.6) | 41 (1.6) | 45 (1.8) | 62 (2.4) | 72 (2.8) | 85 (3.3) | 72 (2.8) | 56 (2.2) | 59 (2.3) | 52 (2.0) | 45 (1.8) | 674 (26.4) |
| Source:https://en.climate-data.org/europe/lithuania/siauliai-county/joniskis-12767/ | |||||||||||||
![Joniškis Synagogue Complex[4][5]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aJoniskjis_-_panoramio_-_Laima_G%25C5%25ABtmane_(simka%25E2%2580%25A6.jpg)
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Authority control databases: National |
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