Utena is the core city of the Rajongemeinde of the same name in northeast Lithuania. The city forms its own municipal office (miesto seniūnija) in the municipality and is the administrative seat of the Utena district. The city has around 33,000 inhabitants, the Rajongemeinde Utena 48,000.
Economy and Transport
Utena is not far from the borders with
Latvia and Belarus on the Warsaw (Poland) -Kaunas-Daugavpils
(Latvia) -Sankt Petersburg (Russia) highway and is the location of a
nationally important brewery called "Utenos".
Buildings
Churches
The Ascension Church and the Church of Divine Providence
are located in the village.
Estates
About seven kilometers
northwest of the place is the park "Vyžuonėlių", which was declared
a Lithuanian natural monument in 1958. In it stands the studio house
of the painter Marianne von Werefkin. It is part of an ensemble of
richly decorated wooden houses that are still preserved today and
were built in the typical folkloric style of Abramzewo. They were
once the center of the Werefkin family estate. They called the
estate "Blagodat", bliss. Werefkin's father had it - which at that
time also included the Vyzuonélés, Mediniai and Mazelizkiai estates,
the Skaistasilis forest and the Lukuo lake - received it from Tsar
Alexander II as a present in 1879 for special military services. The
young painter spent the summer months there, was visited by her
admirer Ilja Repin and introduced Alexej Jawlensky to oil painting
before she moved with him to Munich.
Education
In Utena
there is a university (Kolleg Utena), 3 high schools and a youth
school (a middle school), 4 secondary schools, 2 elementary schools,
5 schools-kindergartens; a music school in Utena and a center for
special education and special employment (special education).