[2] Several historic sites in Žirmūnai are internationally significant; it is the home of Lithuania's largest Jewish cemetery, as well as the location of mass graves of soldiers belonging to Napoleon's Grande Armée and victims of the NKGB's and MGB's executions after World War II.

[5] Žirmūnai was important to the industrial sector in the USSR; since that time, this function has been replaced or supplanted by newer businesses, including some of Lithuania's leading companies.

[citation needed] The Žirmūnai bank of the River Neris, from a point near Žirmūnai Bridge and continuing downstream, was stabilised during the 1980s with a steeply-sloped concrete net-like structure which includes patches of grass between the "webbing" of the net; the lower part of the fortification is a concrete tiled walkway, ending just over 4 kilometres downstream, beyond Liubartas Bridge in Žvėrynas.

[12] At the time of the 2001 census, persons aged between 0 and 15 years comprised 16.1% of Žirmūnai's population, the second lowest percentage among Vilnius' elderates, slightly higher than Viršuliškės at 15.5%.

According to archaeological surveys from 2005, a fishing village may have been located here as early as the late 14th century, giving the area its name, literally, Fishermen; it was later settled by craftsmen and housed the Orthodox Church of St Barbara.

[citation needed] The heritage of Žvejai was retained in the name of Žvejų ("Fishermen's") Street, which runs alongside the River Neris in southern Šnipiškės and Žirmūnai.

[citation needed] During the years of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the area on the right bank of the River Neris opposite the St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Antakalnis, a Royal Manor called Derevnictva (Polish: Derewnictwo), was established in the mid-16th century by King Sigismund Augustus as an outpost of the Vilnius Castles.

In the mid-19th century the main palace was transformed into a guesthouse that became a cultural center in Vilnius, often visited by Stanislaw Moniuszko and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski.

[21] The manor passed into the possession of Julija Safranovich after 1886, and then was held by Olga Melentjeva and her noble family until World War II.

This area was also known as Losiovka or Losiuvka, colloquially named after A. Losev, colonel of Special Corps of Gendarmes and later general of the Russian Empire, who owned the folwark of Tuskulėnai in 1869.

[citation needed] The first microdistrict, or "Žirmūnai I", which is district's middle section, was built in 1962—67 in accordance with a project by architect Birutė Kasperavičienė, who was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1968, together with architect Bronislovas Krūminis and engineers Ṧmuelis Liubeckis and Vaclovas Zubras;[27] it was the first time this award had been presented to the designers of a large-scale residential construction.

[clarification needed] The new residential housing in the microdistrict consisted almost exclusively of five-story prefabricated concrete block apartment buildings popularly known as khrushchyovkas.

Many tombstones were destroyed in 1950 during the construction of Žalgiris Stadium; the cemetery was completely demolished in 1955 in accordance with a decree issued by local authorities in 1948.

[36] The area had been used to hide the bodies of Lithuanian residents – mostly resistance fighters against the Soviet occupation and Nazi collaborators – who had been executed by the NKGB and MGB in the Vilnius' KGB Palace between 1944 and 1947 but also those who died fighting Polish Armia Krajowa soldiers.

[citation needed] In 2001, workers laying telephone line in Šiaurės miestelis, near the former garrison, discovered a mass grave that was found to contain the bodies of about 2,000 soldiers – the remnants of Napoleon's Grande Armée as it retreated from Moscow.

Other findings included buttons stamped with Napoleon's image, crucifixes, wedding rings, belt buckles, boots and pieces of French uniforms.

[citation needed] Due to the Soviet principles of urban planning, Žirmūnai, according to the 2001 census data, was among the three Vilnius elderates (the other two being Karoliniškės and Viršuliškės) with the lowest percentage of single-family housing in the city (0.1%).

[42] The scarcity of lots means that the number of single-family dwellings is not likely to increase; a reverse process is taking place: old wooden houses are being demolished, making room for new residential and commercial constructions.

[citation needed] The Šiaurės miestelis section of Žirmūnai is growing rapidly and in 2007 was one of Vilnius' most sought-after residential and commercial areas.

The Vilnius School of Radioelectronics and Precision Mechanics (Lithuanian: Vilniaus radioelektronikos ir tiksliosios mechanikos mokykla)[49] was established in 1965 to prepare workers for Vilma, a manufacturer of electrical products still operating in Žirmūnai.

The Vilnius School of Tourism and Commerce (Lithuanian: Vilniaus turizmo ir prekybos verslo mokykla) offers certificates in retailing, basic bookkeeping, hotel and restaurant services, and other business areas.

[51] Three of the 19 brick chapels of the Vilnius Stations of the Cross (Vilniaus Kalvarijos), part of Verkiai Regional Park, are located at the extreme northwestern corner of Žirmūnai, just within the elderate's border.

The Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, the Vilnius Department of the Lithuanian Labour Exchange at the Ministry of Social Security and Labour, the Honorary Vice-Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain, and the National Examination Center, established by the Ministry of Education to organize centralized nationwide examinations of high school graduates, all have headquarters in Žirmūnai.

[53] The Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports (Koncertų ir sporto rūmai), built in 1971 in the southernmost part of Žirmūnai in the middle of the former cemetery, is an example of Soviet Constructivism[54] and Brutalist architecture[citation needed], remarkable for its vessel-like exterior.

The Palace, once one of the architectonic icons of Soviet Vilnius, was, until the 1990s, a major venue for sporting events, especially local and international basketball matches, as well as concerts and shows.

Along with the Vilnius Palace of Culture, Entertainment and Sports, it was used in 2006 as part of the set for 9/11: The Twin Towers,[58] a docudrama about the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, a Dangerous Films production for BBC and Discovery Channel.

[60] A building close to the western border of the Žirmūnai elderate, an example of Socialist historicism[61] built soon after the end of World War II, was the home of the Tėvynė ("Motherland") Cinema until the early 1990s; it has been hosting the New York musical theatre and club since 2004.

[62] It is unclear whether this building will be demolished to make way for underground parking lots or saved by virtue of its inclusion into the Registry of Cultural Values.

The Kuro aparatūros gamykla (Fuel Equipment Factory) is now bankrupt; Sigma, formerly one of the leading manufacturers of electronics and computer components in the Soviet Union, which contributed to the description of the Lithuanian SSR as "The Soviet Silicon Valley",[64] continues to operate at a minimum level; and Vilma remains Lithuania's largest manufacturer of electrical products.

Passenger ferry transport on the Neris was active until the 1990s, but is now limited to occasional chartered sightseeing tours from the Mindaugas Bridge to Valakampiai in summer.