History of Visaginas

The settlement was founded in 1975 as Sniečkus, a town for workers in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of Lake Visaginas. It was founded in place of four villages, which were demolished, and the largest of those villages was known as Visaginas. The new town was named after Antanas Sniečkus, a former first secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party. In 1977 it was granted the status of an urban-type settlement, and received city rights in 1995. It is governed by a town council, which elects the mayor. In 1996, the city's coat of arms was confirmed by a decree of the President of the Republic.

The settlement was developed in complexes, with construction designed to create an infrastructure for the cultural and everyday life of the residents