Šeimyniškiai Mound with a settlement site is situated in Šeimyniškiai village, Užpaliai elderate, Utena District Municipality. The mound has an easy access by the road Užpaliai-Dusetos. Driving 3.5 km from Užpaliai, turn right before the second gravel road, crossing a rivulet, then drive 600 more metres, turn left eastwards before a homestead, situated in the downhill, and walk the remaining 250 m.
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The mound dates back to the first millennium-15th c. This is one of the most beautiful and largest of mounds in Lithuania, built on a hilly cape, surrounded by Piliaus rivulet in the north-east and Pilupis in the south-west. The trapezoid elongated top of the mound is 70 m long and 40 m wide in the south-east, as well as 19 m wide in the north-west. It used to be surrounded by a rampart. The south-eastern hillside features the remainings of a 10 m-wide road. The slopes of the mound are rather steep, 16 m high and difficult to climb even now, several centuries later. The settlement used to be located south-east of the mound. The north-western end of the trapezoidal site is 160 m long and 55 m wide, while on the south-eastern end — 130 m wide. Archaeologists have found rough and thrown pottery. On the mound there was Užpaliai castle. On a night in 1373 the settlement below was attacked and burned by the Livonian Order, who killed all of the residents and took 70 horses. At the beginning of February the Livonian Order also had burned the castle, but it was soon rebuilt, because in 1453 it was already planned to use it as the meeting place with the Livonian Order regarding border arrangement. People pass down stories about a beautiful palace on the top of the mound, inhabited by a powerful ruler with his warriors and servants. Once, the ruler’s spies informed of an approaching large army. Being afraid, the ruler ordered his peasants to bury the palace under the ground, hoping that the enemy will just walk past. Yet everyone in the palace died of suffocation. Thus the mound remained, hiding the distant past. In 1958 and 1970 the mound was researched by the Institute of History. The finds are stored at the Lithuanian National Museum. The mound itself is dated from the first millennium to the 15th c. In 1997 Užpaliai elderate cleared an almost 60 are plot of the northern slope, revealing Šeimynyškių mound in its full beauty. In 1996-1998 the elderate had built a road access to the protective boundary and a parking lot. On the north-west slope of the mound there are simple and rather convenient stairs, almost invisible on the mound, except for the handrail.
