Vištytis (, Yiddish: ווישטינעץ Vishtinets) is a small town in Marijampolė County, Vilkaviškis District Municipality in southwestern Lithuania on the border with Russia and close to the border with Poland. It is the administrative center of Vištytis eldership (seniūnija).
Geography
The town is situated on the northeastern shore of Lake Vištytis, close to the Russian border (Kaliningrad Oblast).
The town has preserved its street structure and market square since the 18th century. Vištytis Regional Park is near the town. Southwest is Vištytis hill fort, and in a nearby village, Nebūtkiemis is a big Vištytis stone, preserved geological artifact.
History
thumb|left|upright|16th-century seal
Vištytis was established in the first half of the 16th century, on the border with the Duchy of Prussia. The first mention of the Višytis manor dates from 1538. Around it a settlement of Lithuanian, Polish and German inhabitants started to grow rapidly. On September 8, 1570, Sigismund II Augustus, in his capacity as Grand Duke of Lithuania, granted Vištytis town rights and coat of arms. It was a royal town of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was the first town in the region. In 1589, local starost Krzysztof Jeśman granted land to Jews to build a synagogue. The Jesuit mission house was closed in , and ordinary parish priests were assigned to the church. The rival Polish-Lithuanian dual authority lasted until May 1919, when a Lithuanian militia entered the town and forced the Polish committee to disband and recognize the local Lithuanian authorities. The exact number murdered is unclear; estimates range from 200 - 400 Jews (out of the town's general population of around 1000). First the men were shot, then the women - but, to save bullets, the Jewish children were killed by having their heads bashed against the trees in the town park. A memorial to the victims was later erected by the Soviets near a windmill called Grist Mill, but the plaque made no mention that those buried in the nearby fields were Jews. Later, a 'Jewish' tombstone was erected that noted what happened.
Renewed city coat of arms was granted by the President of Lithuania on May 3, 1999.
Notable people
- Algimantas Kezys - Lithuanian priest and photographer
- - Lithuanian artist
- - Lithuanian singer
- - Lithuanian composer
- Jonas Bendorius - Lithuanian composer
- Jurgis Tiškevičius - Lithuanian auxiliary bishop of Vilnius (1627–1633), bishop of Samogitia (1633–1649), and bishop of Vilnius (1649–1656).
- - born in Vištytis on 13 October 1898, medical doctor practicing in Kalisz, sportsman (three-time national champion in the high jump and javelin throw), officer of the Polish Army murdered at the age of 42 along with about 3900 other Polish POWs in the Soviet death camp in Kharkiv between April and May 1940, part of the Katyn massacre.
- - Lithuanian Army officer