Šventoji, Lithuania

Šventoji
A restaurant in Šventoji
Coat of arms
Šventoji Location of Šventoji
Coordinates: 56°1′31″N 21°4′54″E / 56.02528°N 21.08167°E / 56.02528; 21.08167Coordinates: 56°1′31″N 21°4′54″E / 56.02528°N 21.08167°E / 56.02528; 21.08167
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Samogitia
County	Klaipėda County
Municipality	Palanga city municipality
Eldership	Šventoji eldership
Capital of	Šventoji eldership
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.sventoji.lt

Šventoji (Latvian: Sventāja; German: Heiligenau) is a small resort town on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Lithuania. Administratively it is part of Palanga city. The town is located about 10 km north of Palanga and close to the border with Latvia. Further north of the town is Būtingė and its oil terminal. Šventoji River flows into the sea at the town.

Šventoji is an important archaeological site as the first artifacts are dated about 3000 BC. A famous cane shaped as moose head was also found in the town. It is a former fishermen village now turned into a tourist town. The town always struggled to develop a port, which had to compete with nearby Klaipėda and Liepāja. Larger port was constructed in the second half of the 17th century, especially when in 1679 it was leased to English merchants. It was destroyed in 1701 during the Great Northern War. During the times of the Russian Empire (1795–1915) the port was moribund and began developing again only when it became part of Lithuania in 1921. Two piers were constructed, but they were frequently covered in sand. Thus it never grew into a bigger port, although it briefly became vital to Lithuania in the brief period between when it lost control of Klaipėda, and when it was incorporated into the Soviet Union.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Šventoji.

• (Lithuanian) Semaška, Algimantas (2006). Kelionių vadovas po Lietuvą: 1000 lankytinų vietovių norintiems geriau pažinti gimtąjį kraštą (4th ed. ed.). Vilnius: Algimantas. pp. 497–498. ISBN 9986-509-90-4.