Jan S. Krogh's Geosite: Latvia - Lithuania Boundary Points LTLV-1292 - 1293 (Juodupė, LT / Aknīste, LV)

The main road between Lithuania and until 1921 the Lithuanian town of Aknysta, presently the Latvian city of Aknīste.  After the 1918 independences of the Baltic countries there were several border adjustments.  The most important on the Latvian-Lithuanian boundary was the exchange of Lithuania's Aknysta against Latvia's town of Palanga. Here the border in direction towards Lithuania.  In the background a rest area which until 21 Dec 2007 was in use by the Lithuanian border control services.

Present border map.  The Aknysta [Latvian; Aknīste] territory was until 30 March 1921 a part of Lithuania and became then together with other smaller Lithuanian border areas exchanged with the until then Latvian coast towns of Sventāja [Lithuanian: Šventoji] and Palanga.  A major reason for the border adjustment exactly here was the small ethnic Lithuanian population density in Aknysta.