New Vileika started as a separate town in the second half of the 19th century when the Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railway was built. It grew as a narrow strip along the rails. Then another major Libau–Romny Railway line connecting Vilnius with Minsk was built. In 1911, Church of St. Casimir was built. Before Vilnius joined Poland in 1923 by a decree of the League of Nations,[2] it had a number of small manufacturing shops including wood products, yeast, scythes, knives, paper and knitting mills.

During mass deportations to Siberia in June 1941, some 30,000 deportees passed through the Naujoji Vilnia railway station. After World War II, former shops were nationalized by the Soviet authorities and converted into large factories for machine tools, agricultural equipment and other factories. In 1957 it was incorporated into Vilnius city.

Source: wikipedia

Author's comment

I remember this district of Vilnius since my childhood (I was born in 1989). I didn't go there much but from what I remember, it always looked like a scene from the movie "Stalker". During the soviet era it used to be one of the main industrial districts of Vilnius, there used to be all sorts of factories established in Naujoji Vilnia that provided jobs mostly for the district's inhabitants. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the majority of the Lithuanian industries got closed down or privatized, hence, many industrial buildings were left abandoned or in a decaying state. I always wanted to make a photo project about this place as places like these always used to attract me. I wanted to make a conceptual photo documentary portraying the district with all its beautiful and not so beautiful huts, fences, rivers, monolith buildings, railroads and other weird places that are slowly being consumed by time. I hope you enjoy this long journey that I managed to put together after visiting one of the most interesting places around Vilnius.