Address
13 Rotuses Sq, LT-44279, Kaunas.
Tel. Director +370-37-207477.
Booking office +370-37-201284.
Fax +370-37-207477.
E-mail: jmaironis@takas.lt,
maironiomuziejus@yahoo.com
Internet address: http://www.maironiomuziejus.lt
Opening times
Tuesday to Saturday 9.00-17.00.
Additional services
Ordering excursions;
Lessons and lectures of literature are being prepared at the Museum;
Educational programs.
Museum's collection
The Museum accumulates, stores and exposes
the material connected to the Lithuanian literature, from folklore and the
first papers up to nowadays.
There are collections of about 600 various authors who once lived in
Lithuania or in emigration. All in all, the Museum contains about 200 000
exhibits. Most of them are books, manuscripts, art works, memorial
articles, documents, printings etc.
Expositions
Poet’s Jonas Maciulis-Maironis Memorial
Apartments
The present exposition is the main
exposition of the Museum. Now all eight rooms, in which the poet lived,
are authentically restored.
Exposition of Lithuanian Literature
The exposition is permanent and provides
the visitors with the review of the Lithuanian literature from folklore up
to 1955.
Exposition of Émigré Literature
Opened in 1999. The exposition reflects
cultural and literary activities of the Lithuanian emigrants from 1944 up
to nowadays.
Exhibitions
Literature exhibits are being arranged at
the Museum.
Cultural, educational activity
Literature Evenings;
Educational programs;
Celebrations of writers’ anniversaries;
Meetings with the writers of Lithuania and emigration;
Presentation of writers’ books.
Branch
Museums
Museum of Children Literature
Address: 13 K. Donelaicio St, LT-44239, Kaunas.
Tel. +370-37-206488.
Opened in 1991. Books for children
on display.
Salomeja Neris Museum
Address: 7 S. Neries St, LT-52249, Kaunas.
Tel. +370-37-373606.
The museum opened in 1962 in the
home of poetess Salomeja Neris (Bacinskaite-Buciene, 1904-1945) where she
lived from 1938 to 1941. Exhibition depicts the poetess’ life and
literary creation.
Juozas Tumas-Vaizgantas Museum
Address: 10-4 Aleksoto St, LT-44280, Kaunas.
Tel. +370-37-222371.
The museum opened in the home of
writer J. Tumas-Vaizgantas where he lived from 1920 to 1933.
Balys and Vanda Sruogos Museum
Address: 21 B. Sruogos St, LT-50250, Kaunas.
Tel. +370-37-730474.
E-mail: sruoga@hotmail.com
The museum was opened in 1966 in a
house, which was owned by the writer Balys Sruoga (1896-1947) and where he
and his wife lived from 1938 to 1940 and in 1947. The exhibition on
display reflects the story of Sruogos Family life and work.
Juozas Grusas Museum
Address: 93 Kalnieciu St, LT-50176, Kaunas.
Tel. +370-37-330860.
A museum was established in 1989 in the home of the writer, Juozas
Grušas (1901–1986), where he lived approximately 40 years. A exposition
can be found there today explaining his importance as a figure in
Lithuanian literature. On exhibit are the author’s manuscripts,
documents, publications, and personal objects.
Museum’s
history fragments
The museum is located in an 18th century
mansion which was built on the foundations of three 16th century buildings
some fragments of which are still visible. In 1909 Jonas Maciulis-Maironis
(1862-1932) purchased the mansion, a Roman Catholic priest and famous
Lithuanian poet. The home of Maironis reflects the cultural history of
Kaunas and the entire country during that period. The museum dates back to
1936, when the first three rooms commemorating Maironis were opened to the
public, while the writer’s authentic apartment was restored only in
1992. As far back as 1941 the Maironis Museum started accumulating other
writers collections. Eventually it grew into a museum of Lithuanian
literary history.
Other news about the Museum
Museum’s establisher is Ministry of
Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
Museum’s Director is Aldona Ruseckaite.
Juozas
Tumas-Vaizgantas
J. Tumas-Vaizgantas (September 20, 1869 in Maleisiai - April 29, 1933 in
Kaunas).
One of the ideologists of the Catholic wing of the Lithuanian national
movement. In 1905 he was one of the organizers of the Congress of
Lithuanians, or the Great Seimas of Vilnius, as well as one of the
founders of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Union. Vaizgantas took
part in the activities of the Lithuanian Society of Science, Lithuanian
Society of Arts, and Ruta Society. His major works include a novel Pragiedruliai
(Rays of Hope) and narrative Dedes ir dedienes (Uncles and Aunts).
In publicistic articles, he expressed the ideas of the Catholic wing of
Lithuanian national movement, and criticized the social, cultural and
political evils in the society of that time.
(From: Acquaintance with
Lithuania. Book of the Millennium.-Volume One.-K.-1999)
Maironis
(Jonas Maciulis). Maironis
(November 2, 1862 in Pasandravys - June 28, 1932 in Kaunas).
The first Lithuanian poet to reveal the possibilities of lyric poetry for
expression of a human emotional attitude and dramatic tension
of
inner life in every possible way, he initiated the major genres in
Lithuanian lyrics. His poems embody the ideas of Lithuanian national
movement: they celebrate the past of Lithuania, and its common people for
cherishing national values, condemn the denationalization of Lithuanian
gentry, claim the significance of mother tongue, and poeticize the
Lithuanian scenery. His major books of poetry, Pavasario balsai (The
Voices of spring) and Jaunoji Lietuva (Young Lithuania),
fostered Lithuanian national revival. Referring to the works by Simonas
Daukantas, he wrote a popular historical work Apsakymai apie Lietuvos
praeiga (The Stories About the Lithuanian Past). Maironis was
Professor at St. Petersburg Clerical Academy in 1894-1909, Rector of
Kaunas Seminary in 1909-1932 and Head of the Department of Moral Theology
at Lithuanian University in 1922-1932. One of the authors of the 1905
Program of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Union.
(From: Acquaintance with
Lithuania. Book of the Millennium.-Volume One.-K.-1999)
Balys
Sruoga
B. Sruoga (February 2, 1896 in
Baibokai - October 16, 1947 in Vilnius).
Originator of modern poetic
thinking in Lithuania. The most significant part of his creation was
dramaturgy, historical dramas in particular. He developed the historical
subject, displayed the nation’s fight for statesmanship and freedom,
contemplated on the relationship between the fate of a personality and a
nation. When the Lithuanian nation expressed its strict opposition against
the Nazi German military mobilizations in 1943, he was sent to the Stuthof
concentration camp together with a group of 46 Lithuanian intellectuals
taken hostages. He described the experiences he had gone through in his
book of fiction reminiscences, Dievu miskas (The Forest of Gods).
In a distinctive manner and using ironic intonations, he displayed the
Nazi system of people’s destruction and dehumanization.
(From: Acquaintance with
Lithuania. Book of the Millennium.-Volume One.-K.-1999)
Salomeja
Neris
Salomeja Bacinskaite-Buciene
(1904-1945) took the pen name Neris, the name of her country's second
largest river. It was an appropriate choice as her work expresses a deep
attachment to her country. She is regarded as the most talented of all
Lithuanian poets and poetesses of the 20th century.
She was no stranger to controversy. She lost her job as a teacher in the
1930s as a result of her left-wing political activity. She initially
welcomed the Soviet invasion in 1940 and when the Nazis invaded she went
to live in Russia. During that time Soviet bombers flew over Nazi-occupied
Lithuania disseminating leaflets with texts of her poems. She died of
cancer in Moscow and on her deathbed is reputed to have renounced all her
Soviet poetry.
Her life illustrates some of the difficult choices that writers faced
during the war. She had to deal with the problem of reconciling her love
of her country and the desire to change it, with its invasion by a hostile
foreign power but one which promised change.
She published her first poems at the age of 19. Some of them are sung
today as popular folk songs. She is a controversial poetess, but it is a
testimony to the power of her verse that it is still extremely popular
today.
(From the “Lithuania in
the World”, No. 5, 1998)
Photo by Zenonas Baltrusis
