Hazelnuts – Vilnius microdistrict on the right bank of the Neris River, in a hilly area surrounded by forest. Architect Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas suggested leaving Lazdynes in green areas, as in the capital of Finland.
It is one of the first microdistricts of block houses. The microdistrict project was prepared in 1963, changed even four times and started to be implemented only three years later. Therefore, it became the first high-rise district in Vilnius Žirmūnas. The first residents of Lazdynai started moving into new apartments in the spring of 1969.
During the Soviet era, the Lazdynai microdistrict could not have a church. The idea of architect VE Čekanauskas Lazdynas building a church was implemented only after the restoration of Independence. The construction of the church took several years. The first mass was offered there on December 2000, 24.
In 1974, the architects Vytautas Edmunds Čekanauskas, Vytautas Brėdikis, Vytautas Kazimiers Balčiūnas, Gediminas Valiuškis and engineers Algimantas Kleinotas and Vincent Šileikas, who created the project, were awarded the Lenin Prize for the creation of the residential complex.
"Another thing is that they were taken to Lazdyny tourists in the soviet years. I had to look through more than one Soviet guide to Vilnius, where the routes are written, what a foreigner can do in Vilnius. (…) One of the routes was called "New Construction District Lazdynai". Now that would be weird. (…) Lazdynai was visited by tourists, it was one of the representative corners of Vilnius. (…) There was an order not to hang your laundry on the balconies in order not to spoil the view", says tour guide Albertas Kazlauskas
The district's planned spatial composition is based on a ring system of streets and combinations of five-, nine-, twelve- and sixteen-story houses, and the streets and buildings merge with the natural original relief of the wooded area.
