Švenčionys

Švenčionys is an old settlement of eastern Lithuania and a former centre of Nalšia. Grand Duke Vytautas settled Lipka Tatars here and founded a Catholic church in 1414. Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries the settlement grew, gaining a local court and monastery. It passed to Russia in the Third Partition of the Commonwealth in 1795. During the invasion of 1812 Napoleon stopped here to issue orders, and the town later became one of the centres of the November Uprising against Russian rule.