Visaginas
Ignalina nuclear power plant ©Photo: Maarten Laupman
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Housing built by workers from all over the Soviet Union. ©Photo: Maarten Laupman
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One of the many ornamental gardens next to the housing blocks. ©Photo: Maarten Laupman
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The former pipelines of the power plant were used as children’s playground equipment. ©Photo: Jevgenija Chlodova
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Country: Lithuania
Year founded: 1975
Planned population: 60,000
Current population: 19,315
Purpose: built to support the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (operational 1983–2009)
Special feature: nuclear town & town in the forest
Built in the 1970s beside Lake Visaginas, this Lithuanian New Town was founded to house workers of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant—whose reactors were the most powerful of their kind in the world. Planned as a model of Soviet modernity, it drew residents from across the USSR, creating a multicultural, mostly Russian-speaking community. After Lithuania’s independence, the plant was gradually shut down (Unit 1 in 2004, Unit 2 in 2009) as a condition of joining the EU, due to its Chernobyl-type reactors. Since then, Visaginas has sought new life between its atomic heritage and a greener, more connected future.
Avtor: New Towns New Narratives Network
Kraj: Visaginas
