Vileika is the town, the center of the Vileika rural, at the Vilia river, 103 km off Minsk. Railway station at the Molodechno-Polotsk line. In XVII—XVIII cc. it was a town included in Vileyka headmanship of Oshmiany county, Vilno voivodship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In XVI ñ belonged to the Kure- netskie family. After the second division of the Rech Pospolita (1793) it became a part of a Russian empire. From 1795 Vileika is the center of Vileika county. On January 22, 1796 the town emblem was approved. The merchant shipping promoted the development of Vileika. There are 2 fairs held in the town yearly. By the late XlXth ñ there was decrease in the trade. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the town by the fire of 1810 and by the Patriotic war of 1812.
From 1921 was a part of Poland. From the end of 1939 it is a part of BSSR, a center of Vileika region. From the September 1944 was a part of Molodechno region, since January, 1960 is a part of Minsk region, the center of Vileika rural.
As of 2002 there are 30 thousand citizens live in Vileika. In the center of the town several landmarks survived until now: Church of Cross-Erecting (Gothic, beginning of XX c), the church (1816, pseudo Russian style), as well as dwelling house and hospital built in the early XXth century. There are Troitsa church and Stanislavsky church (XIX c, Dolginovo village), former hotel building and Ilyinskaya church (the early XX c, Ilya village), Church of Peter and Pavel built of quarry stone (1868), and chapel (mid-XVIII c, Kosuta village), church of the mother of God (mid-XVIII c, Kostenevichi village).
Guide to towns and district centers of Republic of Belarus. A.V. Varivonchik [etc.]