Utena, Lithuania

Utena is a city in northeastern Lithuania, the administrative center of both Utena district and Utena County in the Aukstaitija region, first mentioned in documents dating to 1261 and granted city rights in 1599. It emerged as a center of the medieval region of Nalsia and grew rapidly after the construction of the road linking St. Petersburg and Warsaw between 1830 and 1835; during the Nazi occupation in 1941, about 2,000 of its Jewish residents were killed in the nearby Rase Forest. With a 2021 population of 25,343, Utena is known today as an industrial center for clothing and food and beverage production, and it holds the record for Lithuania's lowest recorded temperature, minus 42.9 degrees Celsius, set in 1956.