Jonava

Jonava
Jonava
	— City —
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Nickname(s): Jonų ir Janinų sostinė; (The capital of Jonai and Janinos)
	Jonava Location of Jonava
	Coordinates: 55°4′20″N 24°16′50″E / 55.07222°N 24.28056°ECoordinates: 55°4′20″N 24°16′50″E / 55.07222°N 24.28056°E
Country	Lithuania
Ethnographic region	Aukštaitija
County	Kaunas County
Municipality	Jonava district municipality
Eldership	Jonava town eldership
Capital of	Jonava district municipality; Jonava town eldership
First mentioned	1740
Granted city rights	1864
	Area
• Total	13.6682 km2 (5.2773 sq mi)
	Population (2007)
• Total	34,528 (9th)
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Website	http://www.jonava.lt

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Jonava ( pronunciation (help·info)) is the ninth largest city in Lithuania with a population of ca 35,000. It is located in Kaunas County in central Lithuania, 30 km (19 mi) north east of Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. It is served by Kaunas International Airport. The largest fertilizer factory in the Baltic states is located in "Achema". City is called the capital of Midsummer holiday (lt. - Joninės).

[edit] History

Officially city established at 18th century. The city had a large Jewish population before World War II. In 1893 92% of all population was Jewish and in 1941 it was 80 %. In 1932 there was 250 shops owned by Jewish families, Jewish bank, 7 synagogues and Jewish school.^[1] During World War II war Jonava was attacked by Nazi Germany. There was destroyed Christian church, Jewish synagogue. Nazis killed 552 Jewish (497 men and 55 women). After war in city was built largest fertilizer factory in Baltic states and Jonava become one of 4 biggest industrial cities in Lithuania.

[edit] Environmental catastrophe

An explosion happened in the chemical fertilizers factory on 20 March 1989, provoking a leakage of nearly 7,500 tonnes of liquid ammonia. The catastrophe developed further into a fire of nitrophoska and fertilizers storehouses polluting the atmosphere with products of their decomposition: nitrous oxide, chlorine gas, etc.The toxic cloud moved towards Ukmergė, Širvintos, Kėdainiai. The concentration of ammonia surpassed the permissible level 150 times in Upninkai, at 10 km from the enterprise. One day after the accident, a toxic cloud 7 km wide and 50 km long was recorded between Jonava and Kėdainiai. Seven persons died during the fire and leakage of ammonia immediately, 29 persons became handicapped, a lot of people suffered from acute respiratory and cardiac attacks. But true damages and number of all victims were not named up to now. It is known that exposition to ammonia prenatally and at young age can cause a serious brain damage.

[edit] Administrative divisions

Jonava is divided into 13 city regions:

Senamiestis
Girelė

Miškų ūkis
Paneriai

Lietava
Lakštingalos

Juodmena
Geležinkelio stotis

Baldininkai
Rimkai

Kosmonautai
Skaruliai
Virbalai

[edit] Demography

[edit] Historical population

Year	Inhabitants
1939	5500
1959	5000
1970	14563
1979	28413
1989	36520
2001	34954

[edit] Sport

City has it own "physical culture and sports center" with stadium, swimming pool and indoor arena. Its already announced that city is going to build new big indoor arena "BC Jonava".

[edit] Soccer

Central stadium of Jonava

Jonava has 2 soccer teams

[edit] Athletics

Marathon runners sport club Maratonas won 4 medals at Vilnius Marathon.^[2]

[edit] Basketball

Jonava has a basketball team, founded in 1969; Jonava SK Malsta playing in National Basketball League (Nacionalinė Krepšinio Lyga).

[edit] Volleyball

Jonava has a strong women volleyball team Achema-KKSC. In 2010 Jonava held international "Alfredas Ogonauskas memorial volleyball championships".^[3]

[edit] Competitions

In Jonava was held some irregular competitions. At traditional midsummer holiday there was "Jonas's Republic president cup" of rally slalom events.^[4] In summer seasons there was some irregular cycling tournaments or cross country competitions.