Kelmė

Kelmė
City

Church of Kelmė

Flag
Coat of arms
Kelmė

Location of Kelmė

Coordinates: 55°38′0″N 22°56′0″E / 55.63333°N 22.93333°E / 55.63333; 22.93333Coordinates: 55°38′0″N 22°56′0″E / 55.63333°N 22.93333°E / 55.63333; 22.93333
Country  Lithuania
Ethnographic region Samogitia
County Šiauliai County
Municipality Kelmė district municipality
Eldership Kelmė eldership
Capital of Kelmė district municipality
Kelmė eldership
First mentioned 1484
Granted city rights 1947
Government
 • Mayor Vaclovas Andrulis
Area
 • Total 7.85 km2 (3.03 sq mi)
Elevation 128 m (420 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 9,150
 • Density 1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi)
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)
Website Official website
Kelmė church

Kelmė ( pronunciation ) is a city in central Lithuania. It has a population of 9,150 and is the administrative center of the Kelmė district municipality.

History

Kelmė's name may come from the Lithuanian "Kelmynės", literally "the stubby place" because of the forests that were there at the time of its founding.[1]

Kelmė was first mentioned in 1416, the year that Kelmė's first church was built.[1]

Prior to World War II, Kelmė (Yiddish: Kelm‎) was home to a famous Rabbinical College, the Kelm Talmud Torah.

According to an 1897 census, 2,710 of Kelme’s 3,914 inhabitants were members of the town’s Jewish population, the vast majority of whom were merchants and traders and lived in the town.

People

Twin towns

Kelmė is twinned with:

City COA Country
Biłgoraj Poland Poland
Hódmezővásárhely Hungary Hungary

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Kelmė". Kelmė. Retrieved 3 June 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kelmė.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, August 21, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.