Kédainiai

city, administrative center of Kêdainiai Raion, Lithuanian SSR. Located on the Nevèzis River, a tributary of the Nemunas. Kêdainiai has a railroad station on the Vilnius-Šiauliai line, 133 km northwest of Vilnius, and is a highway junction. Population, 20,000 (1970).

A chemical combine has been producing sulfuric and phosphoric acid, superphosphates, and the like since 1963. The city has electrical-equipment, metal and reinforced-concrete structural members, biochemical and wood-products, canning, and sugar plants, as well as a creamery and cheese dairy and a grain elevator. The Gothic Church of Jurgio (1403, rebuilt 1758) and a Reformed Evangelical church in the Renaissance style (1627–54) are in Kêdainiai. A museum of local lore is also there. Kêdainiai was first mentioned in 14th-century chronicles and has been a city since 1590.