Europe (West) | Global True Lithuania

Western Europe

Note: This includes areas that were not behind the Iron Curtain in the Cold War. For formerly socialist Europe, see Europe (East).

Western Europe is the prime magnet for Lithuanian migration today as the European Union regulations permit any Lithuanian to freely take a job in these richer societies. The largest Lithuanian populations are in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Spain.

While most of Lithuanians there are new immigrants (moved in after 1990 or more likely after 2004) the main Western European countries and cities drew Lithuanian elite and students (also some workers) for centuries. You may find such heritage in Rome (for centuries the center of the Catholic faith, dominant in Lithuania), Germany, London, Paris.

The modern communities are lively and they own Lithuanian restaurants and shops where you can buy Lithuanian goods (for a larger market they are frequently shared with other Eastern European communities). There are basketball clubs and federations. As under the Soviet atheist regime Lithuania became less religious Lithuanian churches are no longer constructed although the Lithuanian Catholic mass is celebrated in the local churches in the main cities.

There are also many political and cultural activities promoted by Lithuania itself in Western Europe, from M.K. Čiurlionis music concerts to Baltic Way photography expositions. Lithuania maintains embassies in most Western European countries. Being part of European Union, Council of Europe and United Nations many Lithuanians work in these institutions or represent Lithuania there. Some of the main headquarters of these international organizations are in Brussels, Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Geneva. Lithuanian flag waves at such buildings along with the flags of other member states, while special Lithuanian embassies are allocated to such organizations.

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United Kingdom

United Kingdom has more Lithuania-born people than any other country in the world, besides Lithuania itself – some 180 000 in total. In the number of people who consider themselves to be Lithuanian, the United Kingdom may be second only to the USA, however, unlike the Lithuanians of Great Britain who are mostly immigrants, the Lithuaian-Americans have mostly been born in the USA.

That said, the Lithuanian migration to the United Kingdom is much older than the current “third” wave, and the old waves of Lithuanians have left significant heritage sites.

Pre-WW1 Lithuanian heritage in Britain (first wave)

The First Wave of Lithuanians arrived in Great Britain before World War 1. Some 7000 of them settled in southern Scotland working in coal mines around Belshill, 2000 in London (East Side), and 1000-2000 in the rest of England, many of whom in the Manchester area.

One of the few surviving tenements in Glasgow where First-Wave Lithuanians lived

This migration was part of a large trend of Lithuanian migration to the USA at the time when Lithuanians were leaving their Russian-ruled homeland where economic opportunities were few and discrimination (including Lithuanian language ban) rampant.

While the USA was the coveted goal for nearly all Lithuanian emigrants, some of them lacked money or were cheated, leading to them ending up in the UK. Britain thus became the second-largest Lithuanian community in the Western world by 1913, second only to the USA. The difference in numbers was huge, however: while the USA attracted more than 300,000 Lithuanians, the UK had just some 10,000 and their salaries were smaller, making the building of Lithuanian churches or clubs like those in America difficult.

Still, London Lithuanians managed to build their St. Casimir Lithuanian Church in the East End back in 1913. Still in operation, this is the oldest Lithuanian heritage site in Great Britain, as well as the only one dating to the First Wave of Lithuanian immigrants.

St. Casimir Lithuanian Church in London

In 1917, the first-wave Lithuanian communities in Britain were heavily hit by a British government request to either serve in the British army in World War 1 or go back to the Russian Empire to serve in the Russian army. Many were deported, to be followed by their families in 1920, and never allowed back. The remaining Lithuanians assimilated rather quickly, with few first-wave Lithuanian descendants participating in Lithuanian activities by the later 20th century (when these activities were dominated by the Second Wave).

A monument in London for Lithuanians who died serving the British military in the World War 2

1950s-1970s Lithuanian heritage in Britain (second wave DPs)

Most of the Lithuanian heritage sites in Great Britain were built by the Second Wave of Lithuanians in Britain. Known as DPs (Displaced Persons), these people had extremely similar life stories:
1. They saw the horrors of the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940-1941 when they suffered persecution and maybe narrowly avoided exile or death.
2. When the Soviet armies were approaching Lithuania again in 1944, they thus fled, spending a few years in the DP camps in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and elsewhere after the World War 2 ended.
3. With no possibilities to return them to their Soviet-occupied homeland where they would likely killed or imprisoned, Western allied nations spread them among themselves ~1948-1951. The United Kingdom offered multiple programs for the DPs to settle there in return for mandatory labor. For example, the Baltic Cygnet program invited 1000 women to work as nurses for a year, Westward Ho aimed to import up to 100,000 workers, among them DPs (not just Lithuanians).
4. After mandatory work, the DPs were free to settle anywhere in Great Britain ~early 1950s. Typically, they sought to stay among other Lithuanians so they could have Lithuanian activities within the pieces of Lithuania they would create and campaign for Lithuanian freedom.

A plaque installed in Bradford Cathedral by the DPs from various countries campaigning against the Soviet rule there

In total, some 3000 DP Lithuanians settled down in Great Britain, with some estimates giving the number of 5749 but this number includes those who soon left for the USA, Australia, and other countries, staying in Britain only a short time. They were also joined by 250 Lithuanian war veterans who served in the Polish forces, something still controversial at the time when the memories of the Lithuanian-Polish conflict were still fresh.

The main Lithuanian DP hubs of Great Britain developed in the Glasgow area, Manchester, London, Bradford, Nottingham, and Coventry. The first three areas were chosen by the DPs as they already had first-wave Lithuanian communities which may have invited or helped DPs initially. While London is the capital of Britain, in terms of DP numbers, it was overshadowed by smaller cities such as Bradford, which may have had 1000 Lithuanians at its peak. Meanwhile, Manchester had ~800 DPs, Glasgow area had 400 DPs, and Coventry had 300. London area had ~500.

In each of their main cities, DPs established their pieces of Lithuania.

In Manchester, Bradford, London, and Belshill (near Glasgow) they opened Lithuanian Clubs ~1950. In Nottingham, a Lithuanian chapel that doubles as a club opened in the 1960s, while another large Lithuanian club “Sodyba” operated in Headley countryside, mostly for London Lithuanians. Lithuanian clubs typically included Lithuanian bars, canteens, dance groups, choirs, and Saturday schools where the DP kids would be taught Lithuanian after the regular school week.

Lithuanian Center "Židinys" in Nottingham

Moreover, Lithuanian DPs have established three Lithuanian cemetery zones so they could buried together, usually under gravestones with inscriptions about their beloved homeland Lithuania, and Lithuanian symbols. These cemetery zones exist in London, Manchester, and Nottingham, the first two also having multiple Lithuanian monuments built there. Even where there was no separate Lithuanian zone, Lithuanians often tried to be buried in the same cemeteries, leading to high concentrations of Lithuanian graves there.

Lithuanian Cemetery Zone monument in Manchester

Another Lithuanian monument complex was built in Carfin near Belshill (Scotland), the only one in Britain located outside a cemetery.

Lithuanian monuments at the Carfin Grotto in Scotland

While the monuments and cemetery zones still survive, the clubs generally folded ~2000 (except Belshill and Nottingham). Unlike in America or Australia, the children generation of Lithuanian DPs in Britain quickly drifted away from their roots, often because of discrimination. Most of them did not want to learn the Lithuanian language or participate in the activities. This group sold the inherited Lithuanian clubs after their parents’ generation passed away, sometimes garnering quite a controversy and court battles. In the closed Lithuanian clubs, nothing reminds the Lithuanian history today. While the buildings often still stand, they were not Lithuanian-built and thus not Lithuanian in architecture, while any Lithuanian decor was removed by the new owners.

The former Lithuanian House in London

Another reason for the decline of the DP community in Britain was rapid emigration to the USA and Australia, where there were higher salaries, less discrimination, and a larger distance from the dangers of Soviet expansion. The USA and Australia also established schemes to make such migration easier. So many Lithuanians migrated from Britain to the USA that there were two clubs of “Lithuanians from Britain” in Chicago in the 1970s.

A book of the now-closed Bradford Lithuanian Club

Modern-day Lithuanian migration to Britain (the Third Wave)

Soviet occupation of Lithuania meant that in the years 1944-1990 emigration from Lithuania was next to impossible. When Lithuania became independent in 1990, however, Lithuanians began emigrating again. While their country was free from occupation and discrimination, decades of Soviet rule had completely ravaged its economy. The United Kingdom became a popular choice for emigration, often illegal.

However, this third wave of emigration from Lithuania reached epic proportions only after 2004, when Lithuania joined the European Union. With the United Kingdom also within the EU at the time, any Lithuanian could have legally migrated to the UK at any time without any reason or bureaucratic hurdles by the late 2000s.

United Kingdom’s Lithuanian community swelled to 180,000, almost half of them in the London area. However, every key city in the UK has a significant Lithuanian community and often a Lithuanian shop or restaurant. Several cities have especially major Lithuanian presence, such as Peterborough or Boston.

A Lithuanian restaurant in Peterborough

That said, there remained an invisible divide between the third wave of immigrants and the second wave. The second wave often saw third wavers as trouble-makers and all-too-often criminals, who just wanted to receive charity from the second wave without volunteering for the second-wave Lithuanian institutions (which, in their view, made transferring such institutions to the third wave impossible). Third wavers, meanwhile, often saw second wavers (at least their born-in-Britain generation) as not so much Lithuanians at all anymore, speaking little Lithuanian and all too willing to sell the Lithuanian clubs their parents built (instead of allowing the third-wavers continue their Lithuanian tradition).

It was not simply "third wave vs. second wave", as some of the second-wave DP descendants sought to save the clubs, however, they were often outnumbered by their peers who preferred selling the clubs, and, in the end, Scotland's Lithuanian Club was the only one that was saved from attempted closure through litigation. Likewise, only some of the third-wavers participated in or wanted to save the Lithuanian organizations, with others not being interested.

All this led to a strange situation whereby while the United Kingdom's Lithuanian population grew to unprecedented proportions increasing some 2000% in the 1990s-2010s, the number of Lithuanian clubs that own their buildings has rapidly dwindled in this same era.

Now-shuttered Lithuanian Sodyba at Headley

The only institutions that were taken over by the third wave were religious ones, including London’s Lithuanian church and Nottingham’s “Židinys”. Third Wave also established a unique Pentecostal Lithuanian church in London. The third wave would also care for the second-wave cemeteries. The only new monument built by the third wave, though, is Perkūnas the Pole of Folkestone, although its true builders are not known. A commemorative plaque was also unveiled in Peterborough and a tree was planted in Leeds.

The Third wave community of the St. Casimir Lithuanian Parish in London

Only a minority of third wave Lithuanians participate in any Lithuanian activities but those who do do so in rented premises, where the Lithuanian Saturday schools operate, continuing the tradition of teaching the kids their language and culture in weekends.

A second-wave Lithuanian grave in Bradford with a Lithuanian tricolor put around it by the third-wave caretakers

With Brexit, Lithuanian immigration to Great Britain somewhat declined. While some have returned to Lithuania after Lithuania became richer, most have stayed in Great Britain. Yet the largest part of current Lithuanian in Britain have immigrated ~2004-2012.

Lithuanian Saturday School operating in rented premises in Peterborough

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London, England

London is often called the “3rd city of Lithuania” as, supposedly, there are more Lithuanians in London than in any other city save for Vilnius and Kaunas. While the exact numbers may be up for discussion, London certainly has more Lithuanian-born people than any other city outside Lithuania, up to 80,000 in total.

While most of London’s Lithuanians are recent immigrants, London has a deeper Lithuanian history than any other major city in Western Europe. Before World War 1 already, Lithuanians built their church in London, to be followed by numerous Lithuanian clubs established soon after World War 2.

St. Casimir Lithuanian Chuch in London (1913)

St. Casimir Lithuanian Church

St. Casimir Lithuanian Church of London is the only Lithuanian church in Western Europe. It was built in 1913. At that time, London had the second-largest community of Lithuanians in Western Europe, second only to the Glasgow mining area in Scotland. Some 2000 Lithuanians lived there, mostly in the blue-collar East End, where they built their St. Casimir Church.

Interior of the St. Casimir Lithuanian Church

Being a small community of Lithuanians compared to the massive Lithuanian-American districts of the time, the church they built is comparatively small, currently dwarfed by massive new buildings surrounding it. Yet, it has survived well over a century, always offering Lithuanian mass, with new immigrants always replacing the past generations of London Lithuanians after these assimilate and move away. Few Lithuanians now live around the church but they come from all over London.

St. Casimir Lithuanian Church, now surrounded by large new buildings in a gentrifying neighborhood

While the church interior is not Lithuanian in style, it has numerous ethnic motifs, including a mural of Rūpintojėlis in a chapel-post, another Rūpintojėlis on the altar table, Lithuanian-language stations of the cross, a sculpture of St. Casimir, a commemorative plaque to a diplomat and patriot John Michael Liudžius, and a commemorative plaque to priest Juozapas Montvila, who sadly sunk with “Titanic” while being relocated to a Lithuanian-American church in Worcester, Massachusetts. In Lithuanian, the plaque says “Born in 1885 and having left for America from this church, he sunk in the Atlantic with the ship “Titanic” on 1912 04 15, performing his priestly duties to the end”.

Rūpintojėlis on the altar

Rūpintojėlis mural

Next to the main church hall, there is a café where Lithuanians meet after Mass. There, paintings show the key personalities of the church's history, including Montvila and other priests. This extension of the original church building was erected in 1974.

Lithuanian cafe within the church

Originally, Lithuanians began their Catholic activities in London as early as the late 19th century, when, in 1896, they acquired a church building together with Poles. However, at the time, Lithuanians were undergoing a sweeping national revival, and the status quo of Polish being the “language of science, books, and faith” in Lithuania gave way to the widespread use of native Lithuanian, something that antagonized the Poles. This led to the “divorce” of the parish, with the Lithuanian St. Casimir Society moving to a German church, then using a warehouse for a church since 1902 before building the current one.

Priest Montvila plaque in the church

St. Casimir statue

Being the only Lithuanian parish in the United Kingdom, St. Casimir parish serves Lithuanians all over the country. One of its priests goes to different Lithuanian-heavy cities every weekend, celebrating monthly Lithuanian-language masses in various non-Lithuanian churches there. That said, after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the religiosity of Lithuanians have declined, and so only a small minority of some 150,000 post-Soviet Lithuanian immigrants the United Kingdom regularly participate in the religious services. Therefore, the initial plans to expand the St. Casimir Lithuanian Church ~2010 (after the largest chunk of Lithuanians immigrated to the UK due to Lithuania joining the European Union) were cancelled. These plans included building a second hall in the basement where the mass would be broadcast.

The parishioners of the St. Casimir Lithuanian Parish in London

Lithuanian Houses of London and the DP community

London also had several Lithuanian clubs and halls, all of which have been closed.

Lithuanian Sports and Social Club opened in 1947, in a building that had previously served as a parish hall for a non-Lithuanian parish of St. Margaret which lost its church during the London blitz (World War 2). It is located 1,5 miles from the St. Casimir Lithuanian church, whose community previously sought additional premises for secular activities. While now it is a house, the plaque “LITH HALL” Survives.

The LITH HALL in East London

The main Lithuanian hall of London was, however, the massive Lithuanian House that operated from the 1950s until 1996. It owned a large 5-floored terraced house in the prestigious Notting Hill neighborhood (1-2 Ladbroke Gardens).

Unlike the St. Casimir parish, the Lithuanian House was established by very different Lithuanians: so-called DPs. This group of Lithuanians had to flee the Soviet Genocide during World War 2 in 1944 and could not return to Lithuania as it remained Soviet-occupied. Seeing themselves as exiles, they put enormous work into creating pieces of Lithuania abroad, continuing the Lithuanian culture and campaigning for its freedom. Moreover, many of them were intellectuals rather than blue-collar workers, giving rise to various endevours. While some 3000 Lithuanian DPs ended up in the United Kingdom, London was not their main center of settlement, likely surpassed or equaled by Bradford, Manchester, Nottingham, and Glasgow area. That said, London being the capital, it was important for the Lithuanian DPs to have their presence here, and so even though the Lithuanian House often struggled economically, it survived until the independence of Lithuania.

The former Lithuanian House in Notting Hill (two final homes on the terrace on the left of this picture)

In addition to housing a bar, canteen, Lithuanian library, and ethnic activities such as Lithuanian folk dances, Lithuanian House also served as the center of Britain’s Lithuanian community and the other key Lithuanian institutions that encompassed the whole of Great Britain. Since 1961, a Lithuanian publishing house operated here, and in 1991, when Lithuania’s freedom became achievable once again, a Lithuanian information center was established within the Lithuanian House.

While the Notting Hill Lithuanian House is the building usually thought about when mentioning this name, there were two other Lithuanian Houses. Before acquiring the main House, since 1950, Lithuanians had a smaller Lithuanian House at 43 Holland Park. That building was sold and replaced when it became too small. On the other hand, the Notting Hill building itself was sold in 1996 and replaced by a smaller and cheaper building at 17 Freeland Rd. That building was, however, later sold as well, leaving London without a secular Lithuanian Hall for the first time since the 1950s.

The first Lithuanian House of London

Like elsewhere in Great Britain, there was an unusually swift decline of the Lithuanian DP community, with very few Britain-born Lithuanian children continuing the Lithuanian activities, leading to Lithuanian Hall effectively serving just a single generation. This decline is typically attributed by the DP Lithuanians themselves to anti-immigrant discrimination of the 1960s-1980s Britain, which made their children drift away from the culture of their parents, wishing to rapidly assimilate, as well as mass re-emigration of Lithuanians from Great Britain to the richer and farther-from-the-Soviets USA (by some estimates, more than half of London DPs eventually migrated to the USA or Australia).

The final Lithuanian House of London

The sale of the London Lithuanian House coincided with the arrival of tens of thousands of new immigrants to the London area. This garnered controversy, with different groups of London Lithuanians blaming each other for the decline of the House. That controversy was even more pronounced in the case of Headley Park “Sodyba”, described below.

Headley Park “Sodyba”

Likely the most famous Lithuanian institution in Great Britain, Headley Park “Sodyba” (Lithuanian for “Homestead”) was a vast area of Lithuanian-owned countryside near Headley. It included a Lithuanian museum, Lithuanian club, and Lithuanian memorials, such as the chapel-post now located in St. Patrick Cemetery.

Sodyba was opened in 1955 by the Lithuanian DPs. It served as a vacation zone as well as a retirement zone for London Lithuanians (this senior housing was rebuilt in 1964-1965). Open-air ethnic activities like Lithuanian scout camps also took place here, as well as general pastimes such as fishing or shooting. “Sodyba” also served as a regular hotel, enjoyed by the other ethnic communities of London as well, for example, in 1963, only some 30% of summer guests were Lithuanians.

Sodyba from a drone

Sodyba’s Pentecost would be the main event of the year for London area Lithuanians, with 500 participating in the Pentecost of 1961.

In 1973, a swimming pool was opened.

Unlike many other DP-era Lithuanian sites of Great Britain, Sodyba also became loved by the 1990s and 2000s-era Lithuanian immigrants who participated in Pentecost and other festivities there.

Sodyba building from a nearby road

Controversially, Sodyba closed down and was sold in 2015, events that still create reverberations in Britain’s Lithuanian community. Recent immigrants often blame the children of Sodyba’s founders, who, being uninterested in Lithuanian activities, "decided to sell Sodyba for personal gain"; meanwhile, these children of DPs often blame the recent immigrants, whose transgressions in Sodyba had led to Sodyba losing the license to sell alcohol.

That said, the ownership of Sodyba always was up for discussion, with the sale suggested numerous times before the 2010s, when southern Europe outcompeted Britain’s countryside as a vacation destination.

After the sale, Sodyba remained abandoned with various Lithuanian signs remaining intact for about a decade while various court cases progressed, with a rebuilding beginning in 2024.

Surviving Lithuanian signs on the shuttered Sodyba entrance in 2024

London Lithuanian Cemetery zone

DP Lithuanians often sought to be buried together. While their numbers were too small to open their entire cemetery anywhere in Great Britain, there were enough of them to acquire a separate zone within London’s Saint Patrick Cemetery.

Lithuanian zone in London's St. Patrick Cemetery

This Lithuanian Cemetery Zone also serves as an area for Lithuanian monuments. Here, the chapel-post of Headley Park was relocated from the “Sodyba” after it was closed. When it was created, this chapel-post was criticized by some, as it doesn’t follow the traditional Lithuanian convention completely. Instead of a crucified Christ, the chapel-post includes Rūpintojėlis, a traditional Lithuanian figure of worried Christ. Like many DP monuments, the chapel-post essentially doubles as a monument to lost Lithuania with many Lithuanian details all over it, such as the Cross of Vytis and columns of Gediminas symbols (when similar traditional monuments are built within Lithuania itself, they typically have much fewer symbols of Lithuania).

A fragment of Headley Park Sodyba chapel-post

Another monument here is erected for Lithuanians who died in World War 2 serving the British armed forces. 14 names are inscribed here together with Lithuanian words “Jų kova ir pasiaukojimas vardan laisvės niekada nebus pamiršti” (“Their fight and determination for freedom will never be forgotten”) and a somewhat different quote in English. While commemorating Lithuanians who served Britain, the monument includes the traditional Lithuanian Columns of Gediminas patriotic symbol.

A monument in London for Lithuanians who died serving the British military in the World War 2

While many Lithuanians are buried under similar regular crosses, one of the unique gravestones is dedicated to Bronius Kazys Balutis, Lithuania’s representative to the UK from 1934 to 1967. His gravestone is inscribed with Vytis and his famous words “Oi skambink per amžius vaikams Lietuvos, kad laisvės nevertas, kas negina jos” (“Ring through ages for the children of Lithuania that he who doesn’t defend freedom isn’t worth it”) – these famous words were inscribed on 500 Litas banknote. The gravestone was designed by a famous Lithuanian DP sculptor from France Antanas Mončys.

Bronius Kazys Balutis grave

As the UK never recognized the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the diplomatic ties continued, yet the Lithuanian representatives were sometimes ridiculed by the press as “envoys of the country that does not exist”. After his death in 1967, Bronius Kazys Balutis was replaced by Vincas Balickas, now buried nearby. Interestingly, Vincas Balickas started working in the Lithuanian embassy of Great Britain while Lithuania was still independent (1938) and he was one of the very few such diplomats to still be alive when Lithuania restored its independence in 1990. At 87 years of age, he was appointed (essentially confirmed) the ambassador of free Lithuania to Britain in 1991, serving until becoming 90 in 1994.

Even though the Lithuanians buried in the Lithuanian cemetery zone of London are mostly DPs, the zone is now cared for by recent Lithuanian immigrants, making a symbolic connection between the two groups.

Lithuanian Embassy

The Lithuanian embassy in London is the largest Lithuanian embassy anywhere in the world due to the huge Lithuanian community in Britain, with a staff of 45 and 50000 consular activities a year in 2024.

The building, formerly owned by Rolls Royce, was acquired by Lithuania in 2007 and opened after a renovation in 2011. Symbolically, it is named “Lithuanian House” in continuation of the fabled series of Lithuanian hubs in London (see above). With these hubs lost, the Lithuanian Embassy now is essentially the main center for Lithuanian events.

Lithuanian embassy in London

Lithuanian Christian Church of London

This is the only Lithuanian church established anywhere in the world by the third wave of Lithuanian immigrants (post-1990) that managed to acquire its own building. Led by the family of pastors Ditkevičius, it is not a Catholic church. Rather, it follows the Pentecostal tradition within Elim church.

Lithuanian Christian Church in London

Initially, some of the 1990s Lithuanian emigrants to Great Britain began visiting the Elim church. Since 1997, they formed a group centered in the home of Vilma Ditkevičienė, who also helped other Lithuanians (some of them unable to speak English well) to understand the teachings of the church.

Encouraged by the leaders of Elim church, Ditkevičienė launched a Lithuanian church within the Elim community. Initially operating in rented premises, they have their own premises since 2015. This is a former Roman Catholic church building erected ~1950. It was expanded by the Lithuanian Christain Church.

Lithuanian Christian Church in London

Lithuanian Christian Church offers services in Lithuanian which are translated to Russian and English and streamed online. While the majority of church members are Lithuanians, there are also Russian-speakers from Latvia and others.

Like many of the historic Lithuanian churches all over the world, the Lithuanian Christian Church has activities beyond religion itself. It operates “Moksliukas” (official kindergarten in English), a Lithuanian language school. It has a choir of ~20 and a rehabilitation program for addicts.

Moksliukas kindergarten

Beckton area

As the recent wave of Lithuanians migrated to London en-masse, many of them settled in the Beckton area. Sometimes, Beckton used to be called “A Lithuanian district of London” or even Bektoniškės, although it never had a Lithuanian majority. To this day, some Lithuanian businesses exist there but Lithuanians are outnumbered by South Asians and other communities.

Lituanica Lithuanian shop in Beckton

Perkūnas the pole

A totem pole with a name of Lithuania’s pre-Christian god Perkūnas suddenly appeared in 2023 on the cliffs near Folkstone. The mysterious author of the pole remained a mystery, dubbed “Lithuanian Banksy” by the local press. The artwork was liked by the municipality, ensuring its legalization and survival. Some offerings were seen at the pole although it is unclear if they were left by Lithuanians or other neo-pagans.

Perkūnas the Pole in Folkestone

If built by the recent Lithuanian immigrants, it would be the first Lithuanian-ethnicity-inspired monument or building erected by them in Great Britain.

Perkūnas the pole is located near N Downs way pedestrian path with glorious views of the English Channel. The location is approximately 51.101574525712465, 1.223900811856188.

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Italy

Italy is the center of the Roman Catholic world. Historically, it was also a center of European art and commerce, a target of many pilgrimages and Grand Tours of European nobility.

As such, there are more historic Lithuanian sites in Italy than in almost any other Western European country. This heritage dates to various eras, ranging from those created by the Renaissance or Baroque eras Lithuanian nobility to those created by post-WW2 Lithuanian refugees and priests.

This is an introduction to Lithuanian heritage in Italy. There are also separate articles on Rome and Bardi.

Massive Lithuanian sites in Rome

The largest Lithuanian landmarks of Italy are located in Rome. The top three are:

*Lithuanian Chapel right within the Vatican’s St. Peter Basilica. Created mostly by the famous Lithuanian-American artist Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas in 1970, its bas-reliefs include the famous leaders of Lithuania as well as the Lithuanian martyrs and, symbolically, the tragedies of the Soviet and Russian rules in Lithuania. It is one of merely a few national chapels in the Vatican.

Lithuanian chapel in St. Peter Basilica in the Vatican

*St. Casimir Lithuanian Pontifical College and Villa Lituania Guesthouse. Two 19th-century twin palaces adorned in Lithuanian symbols, one of them housing a college where Lithuanian priests live while studying in Rome while the other one housing a guest house for Lithuanian pilgrims. The buildings were acquired by Lithuanians in the 1940s-1950s and many Lithuanian symbols and artworks have been added since.

St. Casimir Lithuanian College

*Lithuanian funerary chapel at Verano Cemetery, the most famous burial where is that of priest Kazimieras Šaulys, who was one of just 20 signatories of the 1918 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence.

Lithuanian chapel at the Verano Cemetery

Furthermore, Rome has a square named after Lithuania (Piazza Lituania); a Lithuanian cross in the Vatican Gardens; Villa Lituania building that is often referred to as the “final occupied part of Lithuania” as it served as an embassy of Lithuania before the World War 2 but was given away to Soviets by the Italian government afterward; Lithuanian coat of arms bas-relief right next to the famous Spanish steps and a Lithuanian cardinal Radvila buried under the floor of one of the most famous churches in Rome, the Gesu.

Church of Gesu, where cardinal Radvila is resting

With Rome having a fair share of Western Europe’s most important Lithuanian heritage sites, an entire article on this website has been dedicated to Rome, where each of these locations is explained in detail. Read that article on Rome here.

Traces of Lithuania beyond Rome

While Rome has always been the center of both Italy and the Lithuanian life there, the Lithuanians for centuries spilled beyond the city of Rome itself: after all, Italy as a whole served as a major center of art, science, faith, and civilization.

This was true for pre-modern intellectuals and post-WW2 refugees alike but it may be truer than ever today, as the post-1990 emigration wave created Lithuanian communities in various places in Italy.

An unlikely 2nd “city” in terms of Lithuanian heritage in Italy is the small town of Bardi. There, a local parish Youth House building of 1963 is adorned with many Lithuanian-history-inspired murals and stained-glass windows, most of them located within Sala Lituania. There are also several Lithuanian monuments and a street named after Lithuania, all this despite there never being a Lithuanian community in Bardi, all the Lithuanian sites here created by Lithuanian donors from elsewhere in Italy and abroad, and much of the work done by a Lithuanian-Italian priest Vincas Mincevičius and his employer cardinal Antonio Samore who had worked in interwar Lithuania. There is so much Lithuanian in Bardi that we have dedicated a separate article to this town.

Sala Lituania mural in Bardi

One of the more active Lithuanian communities is in Tuscany. Among the first known emigrants from Lithuania living there was a famous Polish-Lithuanian composer Mykolas Kleopas Oginskis (Polish: Michał Kleofas Ogiński), who served as a treasurer of Lithuania before the Russian Empire annexed the country (1795) and fled to Italy in 1815 after it became clear that the Russian Imperial rule in Lithuania would not end anytime soon; Oginskis's grave is in Santa Croce basilica next to such luminaries as Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, and Giacomo Rossini. A plaque for Oginskis was also unveiled on the house where he lived. Like many luminaries of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Oginskis is seen as “their own” by several modern ethnic groups, namely Poles, Lithuanians, and Belarusians. Oginskis’s grave is inscribed in Polish, which was the language of the Grand Duchy’s elite at the time, while the plaque was erected by the Belarusian community and thus is written in Cyrillic.

Grave of Oginski

Oginski plaque in Florence

Florence’s famous Porte Sante Cemetery has a funerary chapel of the Sapiega family from Lithuania. On the chapel, there is an image of the Lithuania coat of arms.

Sapiega family crypt

The Lithuanian honorary consul in Florence ensured that a street of Florence was named Via Lituania in 2016, commemorating 25 years since the Italian recognition of the Lithuanian independence restoration.

Via Lituania in Florence

All over Italy, there are many streets named after Lithuania. The majority of them are not related to Lithuanians anyhow: simply, when building new districts in the 20th century, the streets would often be named after all the countries; typically, Lituania streets are next to streets named after Latvia, Estonia, or even the Soviet Union. For example, there are two Lituania streets in and around the popular resort of Rimini alone, as well as one in the town of Grosseto. Then, several more places were named after Lithuania due to the activities of Italy’s Lithuanian Community: some of them were renamed while Lithuania was still occupied, and ensuring its name was not forgotten was a major activity for the whole Lithuanian diaspora, while others were renamed after Lithuania became independent in 1990, celebrating the restored ties between Italy and Lithuania and the new Lithuanian diaspora in Italy. For example, a street was named after Lithuania in Torri in Sabina, Tuscany in 2021, in Bari in 2010. Sicilian capital of Palermo has had a Lithuanian square since 2016, while the Sicilian town of Barrafranca has Lithuania - Hill of Crosses square [piazza Lituania – Collina delle Croci] since 2012 when it was named so to commemorate the friendship between the local diocese and diocese of Šiauliai (Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai is an important sight and symbol of Lithuania). Cadoneghe town in Veneto has a park named after Lithuania since 2024.

Lituania street near Rimini (Longiano)

The modern-day Lithuanian community of Italy has also planted numerous trees representing Lithuania.

Another source of Lithuanian sites all over Italy were the activities of Lithuanian priests, who were especially active here while Lithuania itself was occupied by the Soviets and the religious life limited there (1940-1990). Many sites have since closed down and the gravity of Lithuanian Catholic activity moved back to Lithuania (for example, the Lithuanian Salesian house “Vytėnai” in Frascati was closed in 1993 and sold in 1996 in order to fund a construction of a new church in a churchless Soviet district of Vilnius). However, a few traces have remained, the largest of which is the Lithuanian chapel-post in Aosta Valley, near the famous Mount Matterhorn. Here, Lithuanian Salesians had a summer residence. While the residence was sold, the chapel-post survives (45.7997, 7.5843), adorned in Lithuanian symbols (crosses of Vytis).

Lithuanian chapel-post in Aosta Valley

Lithuanian symbols on that chapel-post

See also our other articles about Italy:
*Lithuanian heritage in Rome and the Vatican.
*Lithuanian heritage in Bardi.

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Rome and the Vatican

Rome has been the center of the Catholic world for 2000 years. In the Middle Ages, this also meant the political heart of Europe. With the Christianization of Lithuania (13th-15th centuries) the Grand Dukes of Lithuania participated in many then-important deliberations: possible Catholic-Orthodox union, and wars against Ottomans. Rome's importance continued throughout the 20th century when the Vatican refused to recognize the Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940-1990) and the church supported Lithuanians' plight for freedom.

Lithuanian Chapel in the Vatican

In 1970 when the Soviet military might and human rights abuses made it hard to even dream about free Lithuania, the Vatican opened a Lithuanian chapel in its famous St. Peter Basilica (the most important Catholic church in the world). Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn proudly hangs behind its altar (a copy of a sacred painting that is the religious heart of Vilnius), giving its name to the chapel. It is one of just a few national chapels in the Vatican.

Lithuanian chapel in the Vatican

The walls of the chapel are decorated with bas-reliefs of Lithuanian rulers, bishops, martyrs, saints, major Lithuanian churches, and patriotic symbols, all created by a famous Lithuanian-American sculptor Vytautas Kazimieras Jonynas.

The original idea was to name the chapel after the Lithuanian Martyrs – Lithuanians who have been killed for their faith in Lithuania, many of them then-recently by the Soviet Union. However, at the time, the Vatican was following a complex “Ostpolitik”, whereby, on the one hand, it never recognized the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and criticized the Soviet mistreatment of Catholics, on the other hand, it tried to go too hard on this to avoid the operation of the Catholic church being banned altogether and even more Catholics of the Soviet-ruled areas being imprisoned and killed. The Lithuanian chapel is a good representation of that “Ostpolitik”: on the one hand, the Lithuanian Martyrs name was dropped in favor of a more neutral Our Lady of Gate of Dawn, on the other hand, the persecutions of Lithuanians at the hands of Russians are well-represented on the right wall of the chapel.

The bas-reliefs on the right wall include the “Siberian Book of Prayers” “Marija gelbėk mus” (“Mary Save Us”). Written by a religious Lithuanian Catholic teacher Adelė Dirsytė, who had been exiled to inhospitable Siberia by the Russians, this book was smuggled to the West and published in America in 1959 (after Dirsytė died in exile in 1955). Later, it was translated to many languages, becoming the most widely published Lithuanian work of literature and spreading the word about the Soviet persecutions of Lithuanians and Catholics in Lithuania.

Adelė Dirsytė bas-reliefs

There are also bas-reliefs of a fallen person in front of Kražiai church depicting the 1893 Kražiai Massacre, where the Lithuanian Catholics who protested against the closure of the church were attacked and killed by Russian Cossacks during the previous Russian Imperial occupation of Lithuania (1795-1915). Then, next to the bas-relief of St. Casimir, the patron saint of Lithuania (1458-1484), there is a bas-relief of St. Josaphat Kuncevitius (Josaphat Kuntsevych, 1580-1623), who campaigned for a union between the Orthodox and Catholic churches within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, giving birth to the Uniate (a.k.a. Eastern Rite Catholic) church that follows an Eastern Orthodox rite but recognizes the Papal primacy. He was lynched by Russian Orthodox in 1623. Recognized as a martyr, his remains rest within the main hall of St. Peter’s Basilica itself.

St. Josaphat and St. Casimir bas-reliefs

In addition to the images, the Travertine stone that is used for all décor itself is symbolic. It is a reminiscence of the Roman catacombs where early Christians used to hide from Imperial persecutions (events that were a 1700-year-old history in Rome but a modern truth in Lithuania where Soviets led a major anti-Christian drive which included murdering the religious).

The left side of the chapel also has Travertine bas-reliefs but these represent the glory of free Lithuania long before the Russian conquests. One bas-relief depicts Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas (1350-1430) holding a Lithuanian coat of arms. Another one depicts the joint king of Lithuania and Poland Jogaila (1348-1434) with columns of Gediminas next to him, and the first Catholic king of Lithuania Mindaugas during his baptism. There are also bas-reliefs depicting the churches of Kaunas and Vilnius and a coat of arms of Vilnius.

Jogaila and Vytautas bas-reliefs

The left wall also has a niche opening up to a now-walled original access corridor to grave of St Peter. The niche was covered with a large sculpture Rūpintojėlis (a traditional Lithuanian figure of a worried Jesus) created by Italian Alcide Ticò and not fully adhering to the convention.

Rūpintojėlis with a crypt behind him

The metal entrance door to the chapel includes a unique reimagination of the Lithuanian coat of arms Vytis. On both sides of the doors, there are two papal coats of arms: that of Innocent IV, who reigned when King Mindaugas was baptized, and that of Pope Paul VI, who reigned when the chapel was opened.

Vytis in the door of the chapel

Consecration of the chapel was attended by 500 Lithuanians - all of them from the diaspora (from North and South America, Western Europe, Australia, and Africa) as the Soviet occupational regime forbade Lithuanians traveling to the Western world. The idea of the Lithuanian chapel was therefore developed by the diaspora and they were a prime source of pilgrimages to the chapel for the upcoming 20 years. Interestingly, the chapel was one of the first locations where the Polish Pope John Paul II prayed after being elected.

After Lithuanian independence (1990) Lithuanian citizens were quick to discover the Eternal City and this chapel (~1995 the first Lithuanian language guidebook to be published about a Western location had Rome as its topic). The chapel is not always accessible, though. Located in the Vatican crypts not far away from the grave of St. Peter (basement of the Basilica), it is officially opened for prayers of pilgrim groups for primate masses. However, it may be possible to ask the guard to let you inside.

Other Lithuanian sites in the Vatican

In the main hall of St. Peter’s Basilica itself, the remains of Josaphat Kuntsevych are resting.

Kuntsevych's remains in the upper basilica

Additionally, in the Teutonic Cemetery not far away from the basilica, Bronislovas Kačergius, a young Lithuanian Marian priest who died in Rome in 1924, is buried in a grave of a German and Hungarian College.

The grave where Kačergius is buried at

There is also a Lithuanian Cross in the Vatican Gardens. Unlike the free-to-access St. Peter’s Basilica, the gardens may only be accessed with guides as they are in a part of the Vatican normally reserved for those working there.

Two Vatican-and-Lithuania-related sites are actually located outside of the Vatican. The Lithuanian embassy to the Holy See was one of the few Lithuanian diplomatic missions to continue operation throughout the Soviet occupation but it has moved from location to location, not having its own building and operating in rented premises.

Vatican Radio famously has Lithuanian programming since 1940 11 27. The radio HQ is located outside the Vatican. Sections of different languages have their rooms there, including one for Lithuanian journalists, however, these are not accessible to the public.

Lithuanian Pontifical College of St. Casimir

The grandest Lithuanian buildings in Rome are undoubtedly those of the Lithuanian College of St. Casimir. These are two identical 19th-century palaces at Piazza Asti. One of them, with the coat of arms of Our Lady of Vilnius on its tower, houses the college itself, while the other one, with a coat of arms of Lithuania on its tower, houses Villa Lituania, a guesthouse that is often chosen as a place of stay by pilgrims from Lithuania who travel to Rome.

St. Casimir Lithuanian College

The Lithuanian College serves as a place of communal living for Lithuanian priests who come to study in Rome. Numerous Catholic nationalities have similar colleges in Rome. While there was an idea to establish a Lithuanian college well before World War 2, it was established only after World War 2, during some of the darkest times for Lithuania when the Soviet Genocide was in full swing there. With no more connection between the Vatican and the dioceses in Soviet-occupied Lithuania, unlike other Colleges, this one is named “Pontifical” as it was initially responsible directly to the Pope rather than the Lithuanian bishops. At the time, 23 Lithuanian priests and 20 clerics came to Rome as refugees, having fled the Soviet-occupied Lithuania, making the need to acquire a Lithuanian building to house them acuter.

Our Lady of Vilnius image on the tower

The College building, a monastery at the time, was acquired in 1946 mostly thanks to Lithuanian-American donations, especially those of Antanas Briška, a Lithuanian priest from Chicago who had been collecting money for such a college. Since 1984, the College is supported by the Knights of Lithuania Lithuanian-American Catholic organization. As such, at the entrance of the College, there is a bust for A. Briška, and a plaque with a symbol of Knights of Lithuania, inscribed “Lietuvos Vyčiai – pagrindiniai kolegijos rėmėjai” (Knights of Lithuania – the main sponsors of the college). Another plaque depicts the college buildings, the St. Peter’s Basilica, and Lithuanian coat of arms. The College was officially opened in 1948.

Antanas Briška bust in the College

The College also includes a Lithuanian chapel with the Cross of Vytis under its altar and pulpit. This Lithuanian symbol is also featured many times on the College’s fence. In the college’s courtyard, a wooden Sculpture of St. Casimir stands, built for the 60th anniversary of the college, depicting the Lithuanian patron saint and the Xollege’s coat of arms.

St. Casimir monument at the yard of the College

College's chapel

The interior of the college hosts lots of Lithuanian memorabilia, the largest of which is a huge artful map of Lithuania originally created by Urba in Switzerland in 1936 and now adorning the College’s main hall.

The map at the hall of the College

The Villa Lituania building (the main palace’s twin) was acquired by the College in the late 1950s after the College received a sizeable legacy. Initially, that building was used to house the relatives of priests who came to visit them. Eventually, staffed by Lithuanian-American nuns, it used to receive all the Lithuanian pilgrims from the diaspora and, after Lithuania became independent in 1990, also from Lithuania itself. It also became popular among German pilgrims. The initial building was expanded by an annex in 1960. It has 65 rooms and may host 140 guests. It is no longer served by Lithuanian-American nuns due to their declining numbers, though. Anyone can stay there now.

The role of the college changed over time. At times, it also served as a seminary, preparing priests for the Lithuanian parishes worldwide. After Lithuania became independent in 1990, it also received numerous priests from Lithuania, with the hope being that these priests would learn more about the global church this way after long years of isolation of Lithuania from the rest of the Catholic world. This program has ended though, with the College now being just a College; in addition to Lithuanians, priests of other ethnicities could also live here.

Cross of Vytis on the fence of the College

In the past, College also owned a farm in Tivoli which helped it earn money to survive. It had been sold.

Lithuanian funerary chapel at Verano Cemetery

Rome is the only city in Western Europe where Lithuanians have their chapel in the cemetery. Located in the famous St. Lawrence (Verano) cemetery, this chapel belongs to the Pontifical St. Casimir Lithuanian College. The most famous burial there is that of Kazimieras Šaulys, a priest who was one of merely 20 signatories of the 1918 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence. While after World War 2 he lived in Lugano, Switzerland, his remains were moved here, and he is said to have envisioned such a chapel in Rome as a kind of pantheon for famous Lithuania refugees who fled the Soviet occupation.

Lithuanian chapel at the Verano Cemetery

That said, it is owned by the College, and the chapel has mostly people related to the College interred there. Those interred are the bishop Vincentas Podolskis, leader of Lithuanian-Italian community priest Vincas Mincevičius, Lithuanian ambassador to the Holy See Stanislovas Girdvainis, chairman of the American Lithuanian charity fund Juozas Končius, Lithuanian Brazilian general vicar and vice-rector of the St. Casimir Lithuanian college Zenonas Ignatavičius, priest Jonas Buikus, deacon Augustinas Lišauskas, nun Eulalia Hoff, Vladas Delininkaitis, Stasys Žilys, Nijolė Tutkaitė, Kazimieras Dobrovolskis, Jonas Bulaitis. The interior of the chapel has a stained-glass window by Vytautas Švarlys depicting St. Casimir and the St. Casimir’s Church of Vilnius, Lithuania superimposed on the Vilnius Cathedral.

Stained-glass window inside the chapel

Verano Cemetery has more Lithuanian burials. Lithuanian priests of the Marian order (once saved from extinction by a Lithuanian Jurgis Matulaitis) are resting in a common Marian grave near the Lithuanian chapel, while Lithuanian Jesuit priests are buried in a Jesuit crypt.

Marian graves where some Lithuanian priests are buried as well

Lithuanian marks at the famous places of Rome

With Lithuania being Christian since the 14th century, there were always ties between the Lithuanian nobility and the elite of the Catholic church. These ties are visible at some of the most historic and touristic locations of Rome.

One of the most visited churches of Rome Chiesa del Gesù (the heart of the Jesuits) is also the final resting place of the first Lithuanian cardinal and a bishop of Vilnius Jurgis Radvila (epitaph on the floor: "Cardinalis Radzivili Episcopi Cravoviensis Ducis Olicae Et Niesvisii" - "Cardinal Radvila, the Bishop of Cracow and Duke of Olyka and Nesvyžius"). In the peak of his career, he was one of Europe's important elite and he died in the Eternal City in 1600. It is symbolic that this church is considered to be the first Baroque church in the world and Baroque would later have a major architectural impact on Vilnius. By the way, the second Baroque church in the world was built in Nesvyžius (modern-day Belarus), in a manor owned by Radvila family.

Church of Gesu, where cardinal Radivla is resting

Moreover, right at the top of the famous Spanish Steps, there is a palace Palazzetto Zuccari with Lithuanian (and Polish) coats of arms above its entrance. These were installed back in the Queen Marie Casimire of Poland-Lithuania who used to stay in the palace.

Lithuanian and Polish coats of arms on the Palazzetto Zuccari

Villa Lituania, “the final occupied territory of Lithuania”

While today Villa Lituania usually refers to the guesthouse of St. Casimir Lithuanian College (see above), this name was chosen for that guesthouse for a reason, as this used to be a name of a large villa that was acquired by interwar Lithuania in 1937 for 3 million liras) to serve as a legation. However, Italy illegally transferred the building to the Soviets under Soviet pressure. Russian diplomats still use the building. Italian government recognized the illegality of its predecessor's actions but could not offer restitution instead of suggesting some alternative proposals.

Villa Lituania nowadays

Diplomats at Villa Lituania. The building, surrounded by a park, still exists although trees largely cover it from the street. Historical image.

For many years, Lithuania would decline the Italian proposals as not being of comparable value. In 2013, however, Lithuania finally agreed, despite the proposal being that for a 99 year use rather than ownership and for just a part of a historic building instead of a whole historic building that Villa Lituania was.

That said, with the conclusion of the conflict, the popular designation of Villa Lituania as the "Final occupied territory of Lithuania" is now used less often.

Piazza Lituania

From the Medieval times until some 1930s nobles and priests used to be the Lithuanians who explored Rome the most. The first sizeable secular community was formed in the 1940s when post-war refugees arrived in Rome. It soon established ties not just with the Vatican but also with Italian Christian Democrats. Disregarding the protests of local far-left activists the Christian Democrats supported Lithuanian independence. A relic of these times is a square in Rome named Piazza Lituania.

Piazza Lituania

Lithuanian heritage beyond Rome

Lithuanian heritage in Italy beyond Rome is described in another article.

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Peterborough, England

Currently, Peterborough is the most Lithuanian city in the UK among those with 100 000+ inhabitants, with up to 5% of its population Lithuania-born and even larger number ethnic Lithuanians. This community is nearly all recent immigrants, however.

A Lithuanian restaurant in Peterborough

Interior of a Lithuanian restaurant "Kaimas" in Peterborough

While only a few Lithuanians lived in Peterborough before the 1990s (~20 in 1970), their deeds in “loving Lithuania from abroad“ greatly inspired the more active “new” Peterborough Lithuanians. Their „Švyturys“ organization ensured that the home of Steponas Bronius Vaitkevičius (1922-2017) would be marked by a commemorative plaque after his death. S. B. Vaitkevičius used to lead Lithuanian scout camps and write articles for the Lithuanian diaspora press, something quite common among the DP Lithuanians but inspiring to the post-1990 immigrants who left a post-Soviet Lithuania where patriotism had been uprooted. The “new Lithuanians” thus campaigned for Vaitkevičius to be awarded the Lithuanian Diplomatic Star and the Peterborough Civic Awards. The plaque was installed in 2018 and it is located at 325 Eastfield Road.

Steponas Vaitkevičius plaque in Peterborough

Due to the sheer number of Lithuanians, Peterborough has a huge density of Lithuanian businesses, including shops and restaurants. Lithuanian language and symbols are also often used among the select few when something is aimed at the immigrants (e.g. exotic goods shops).

Lithuanian flag is one of the four flags used on the sign of this aimed-at-immigrants shop

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Belgium

Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is the center of two major international organizations: the European Union and NATO. Lithuania has been a member of both organizations since 2004. Lithuanian politicians participate in these institutions as per their treaties, Lithuanian citizens also work in clerk and back-office jobs, while the interests of Lithuania are additionally safeguarded by two diplomatic representative offices (equal to embassies in rank).

It is estimated that in total 10% (200 000) of Brussels population are expatriates with their work related to international organizations (their members, workers, journalists, advisors, etc. Lobbyists alone number 20 000). Furthermore, 50% of the population are immigrants with works not directly related to international organizations.

Brussels capitalizes heavily on its "Capital of Europe" image. Various public places bear flagpoles with flags of every European Union member state, including Lithuanian. Words and placenames in various foreign languages (among them Lithuanian) are used for architectural decor in main locations

Mini-Europe theme park in Brussels

The most popular EU-related attraction in Brussels is the Mini-Europe theme park which contains 1:25 miniatures of some 350 famous buildings from 80 cities all over the EU. Lithuania is represented by a miniature of Vilnius University Renaissance campus. It stands next to the Latvian (Riga Freedom Statue) and Estonian (fragment of Tallinn fortification) miniatures. All three are linked by a chain of miniature "people" symbolizing the Baltic Way, a protest against the Soviet occupation which took place in 1989. On that day some 2 million people from all three countries (equalling to 36% of their total ethnic population at the time) joined hand-in-hand from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn. This was the first such protest in the world and it was later emulated in places such as Taiwan and Israel but the sheer number and percentage of participants were never matched.

Vilnius University at the Mini-Europe miniature park

A miniature of Vilnius University at the Mini-Europe park. Baltic Way is visible in the lower left of the image. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

A visitor may also listen to the Lithuanian anthem at the Mini-Europe park and read some interesting facts on Lithuania. While the older EU members have up to 10 miniatures each in the Mini-Europe park, Lithuania is unlikely to get new miniatures as the park has expanded to its territorial limits.

Traces of Lithuania at the EU institutions in Brussels

Brussels is home to the main institutions of the European Union. As per the European Union treaties, Lithuania is represented in each of them by politicians (see below).

A much larger number of Lithuanians (more than 1000) work directly for these EU institutions, for example, as interpreters or clerks, as these institutions are staffed by citizens from all over the European Union. Lithuanians who work for the EU institutions are not employed by or representing Lithuania; they are responsible directly to these EU institutions as career employees there and their jobs are unrelated to the elections or political situation in Lithuania.

Each of the key EU institutions has large buildings in Brussels. These buildings are, however, mostly modern in style and lack symbols of European Union member states in their design. That said, as time passes, the number of various artworks and symbols slowly increases in the interiors of some of them.

European Parliament buildings

These are the main EU institutions in Brussels:

The Council of the European Union is one of two legislatures of the European Union. Here, every country is represented by a single person but they have unequal voting power based on the population of their countries. Unlike in the other institutions, there are no permanent members who reside in Brussels. Instead, each EU member state delegates its different minister to every meeting, depending on the decisions being made in the particular meeting. Moreover, there is a European Council, where the heads of member states meet in a similar fashion, setting the political course of the European Union.

European Parliament, which has a constant membership of elected members. 11 out of 720 members are elected in Lithuania. The parliament operates in two cities – Brussels and Strasbourg (France), having buildings in each and its staff always travels between the two. While Strasbourg is meant to be the main HQ of the parliament, the Brussels building is arguably more famous and the majority of the parliament’s work is done here. This building is also the one among the EU institution buildings that has the most Lithuanian details within it. One of its corridors was renamed The Baltic Way (La Voie balte) and a plaque commemorating this was unveiled within. Under a symbolic plate with people holding hands, an inscription in 6 languages (English, French, German, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian) declares that it celebrates Europe’s longest human chain, The Baltic Way of August 23, 1989, which ran 600 kilometers from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, for freedom. There are also some Lithuanian works of art on the walls of the European Parliament.

Baltic Way at the European Parliament

Baltic Way sign at the European Parliament

European Committee of the Regions and European Economic and Social Committee, where Lithuania delegates 18 (out of 688) and 9 (out of 344) members respectively.

European Commission is effectively the “government” of the European Union. It has 27 Commissioners, one from each country (including Lithuania), and these Commissioners each have their own minister-like portfolio and are obliged to serve the Union rather than their own countries.

As Lithuanian is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union the EU institutions also have their Lithuanian name written on their entrance plaques while many EU regulations and directives are translated into Lithuanian. This requires a strong interpreters' team - in the European Parliament alone there are at busy times as many interpreters working as there are MPs (~750). However, while the main European Parliament plenary sessions and the EU regulations and directives are translated into all the EU official languages, smaller work meetings are typically not translated into Lithuanian or other “smaller” EU languages.

Entrance sign at the European Parliament with the institution's name listed in every official language of the EU

Plenary Sessions hall of the European Parliament, with the interpreter booths lining the side floors in two floors, each booth dedicated to a particular language

Uniquely, Brussels also hosts European schools where children of EU employees from all EU member states (including Lithuania) can get education in their native languages according to their national school programs taught by their teachers (Lithuanian in the case of Lithuania). Each country is assigned to one or more European schools. This is among the facts that make the Lithuanian community of Brussels unique, as they tend to have a closer relationship to Lithuania than other Lithuanian diaspora, effectively being both emigrants and not emigrants at the same time, as their work is related to an international organization Lithuania is a member of. They are creating regulations that directly apply to all EU member states, including Lithuania. Various European Union institutions in Brussels are essentially serving as “extensions” of the political system of Lithuania (and that of other EU member states), establishing rules that Lithuania’s parliament is not allowed to establish or change by the EU treaties and their interpretations.

Lithuanian diplomatic missions in Brussels

Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the European Union is located in a late 19th century house at Rue Belliard 41-43. Also housing the Lithuanian embassy to Belgium in a modern annex, this is one of the largest Lithuanian governmental real estate properties outside Lithuania. The Permanent Representation to the EU alone has more than 100 employees whose job is to represent Lithuanian interests and follow the developments in the EU institutions reporting back to Lithuania.

Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the European Union

Built in 1872-1876, the building of the Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the European Union is one of the last historic buildings in the district, now surrounded by towering modern buildings. That is because in Brussels it is quite common to demolish old buildings; many historic buildings, including an old convent, were demolished in order to build the EU institution buildings, and most counties operate their permanent representations in modern buildings as well.

Courtyard of the Permanent Representation

Recognized as heritage, the Lithuanian building has many original interiors and even furniture in what used to be a hotel until 1956. To preserve the historical Belgian interiors, no permanent Lithuanian details were added but, rather creatively, some rooms are lit in such a way that Lithuanian ethnic patterns would become visible on the walls when the light is on. In the courtyard, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's historic flag is flying.

One of the rooms with the lighting in Lithuanian ethnic patterns

The current building of the Representation is the second Lithuanian building in Brussels. With Brussels being the center of the European Union and NATO, two organizations Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia hoped to join right from their 1990 independence restorations, the three nations together opened their information office in Brussels in 1991-1992, followed by a Lithuanian embassy in 1993 – however, at the time Lithuania was a poor country, these missions lacked their own buildings. Understanding the importance of the Lithuanian representation in Brussels, Lithuanian-Canadians collected money (2 million USD) for Lithuania to acquire its own embassy building which opened in 1996. When Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, however, that building became far too small, and it was replaced by the current one. The original building was sold with only flag mast hosts now reminding it used to be an embassy.

The old embassy of Lithuania in Brussels

There is also a third diplomatic mission of Lithuania in Brussels, making Brussels a city that has more such missions than any other city in the world. That third mission is the Permanent delegation of the Republic of Lithuania to NATO located in the NATO HQ, inaccessible to general public.

Lithuanian crosses in Duffel

Duffel town north of Brussels has two Lithuanian-made crosses located in the Convent van Betlehem. Only one of them (built by Jonas Tvardauskas in 2010 and inscribed “Lietuva Anykščiai”) is in the publicly-accessible front yard, serving as a place for Lithuanian activities. The other one (built by Rimantas Zinkevičius in 2017) is in the convent’s private area.

Lithuanian cross in Duffel

Duffel never had a Lithuanian community and the crosses are actually a result of work done by a Belgian wife and husband, Francina Baeten Van Den Brande and René Verbeke. They became acquainted to Lithuania in 1993, when a Lithuanian folklore group “Jievaras” came to Duffel folk festival and stayed in their home. After that, Francina and René participated in charity missions to Lithuania and organized Lithuanian events in Duffel. As Francina was educated in the convent’s school, she also retained relationship with the convent for all her life, with the convent helping collect charity for Lithuania. One of the sisters of the convent asked her to bring the cross from Lithuania for the convent, which Francina did.

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Ireland

Ireland is the only country in the world where there lived more people 200 years ago than today. And the difference is rather large in 1840 the island had 8,2 million inhabitants while today it hosts merely 5,6 million. The Irish were forced out from their homeland by poverty and malnutrition.

Prior to World War 2 no Lithuanians would have even considered moving to Ireland which was at the time poorer than Lithuania. Sadly, the subsequent decades of Soviet occupation and genocide in Lithuania (1940-1990) changed all this and Ireland left Lithuania far behind economically. After 1990 Lithuanian independence and 2004 EU membership permitted easy migration tens of thousands chose the English-speaking Ireland to start hopefully richer lives there.

The young age of Lithuanian-Irish community means there are no imposing centuries-old Lithuanian halls, cemeteries or churches in Ireland (unlike the US megalopolises). Lithuanian mass is however celebrated weekly in Dublin at St. Andrew church (Westland Row 2), there are some Lithuanian shops and restaurants.

Lituanica store in Dublin, its name inspired by the doomed Lithuanian flight of 1933 that attempted to cross Atlantic. Google Street View.

Republic of Ireland census of 2011 revealed that there are 36 683 citizens of Lithuania living there (0,82% of total population) and 31 635 native speakers of Lithuanian (0,7%; the third linguistic minority in size after Polish and French). 10% of all Lithuanian emigrants today leave for Ireland.

Lithuanian citizens are quite evenly spread across the country. By the sheer numbers, most of them live in Dublin (10 576, 0,85% of Dubliners). Castleknock is the most Lithuanian district with ~10% of its population Lithuanian citizens.

There are daily plane services between Lithuanian and Irish cities but the frequencies have been decreasing. The financial crisis in Ireland itself may have attributed to this.

Ireland is also related to the Lithuanian aviation history, as a Monument to pilot Feliksas Vaitkus in Ballinrobe proves. Feliksas (Felix) Vaitkus was a Lithuanian-American who became the first Lithuanian to successfully cross the Atlantic ocean in flight and land in 1935, that way "rectifying" the mistake of the earlier Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who perished befor landing. While Vaitkus's initial destination was the Lithuanian capital of Kaunas, he was forced to land earlier in Ballinrobe, Ireland.

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Germany

Germany has some of Europe’s greatest and most important Lithuanian heritage sites.

Most of them are related to the DPs, some 100,000 Lithuanians who fled Lithuania in 1944 before the Soviets re-occupied it. The majority of them ended up in DP camps in West Germany, and while many emigrated further on, more have remained in Germany for good than in any other European country.

The storied history of Lithuanian sites in Germany far predates that, though. It includes the tragedies of Lithuanians deported to Germany’s concentration camps by the Nazis, the marks left by the pre-WW1 Lithuanians who used Germany’s ports for their embarkation to emigrate to the USA, and the 18th century when, at one time, the same rulers ruled both Lithuania and parts of Germany, leading to possibly hundreds of Lithuanian coat of arms symbols chiseled on various German buildings.

Rennhof Castle, the heart of Germany's Lithuanian community

Lithuanian DP camps in Germany

Germany had occupied Lithuania during World War 2 (1941-1944) and taken thousands to forced labor in Germany. Ironically, after a couple of years, the same German cities became the main refuge for Lithuanians as Lithuania was occupied by an even more brutal force: the Soviet Union. ~100,000 fled westwards as they knew they would be on the Soviet killing lists for their ethnicity, religiousness, and/or the past (e.g. having had an intellectual job or participated in the Boy Scouts movement). ~65 000 of them ended up in West German refugee camps (other sources claim ~200 000), established by Western Allies. There were 113 of them, aimed to maintain a quality of life for refugees not worse than that of ethnic Germans.

The former DP camp in Augsburg

However, the life of those who had just lost their homeland was still hard and their future seemed unknown. Yet even under these conditions Lithuanians swiftly organized. By 1948 there were 158 Lithuanian schools in Germany, of them 26 colleges and even a Baltic University. Lithuanian DP camps were essentially “Little Lithuanias” where, while subjected to the laws of the powers occupying Germany, Lithuanians had a significant cultural freedom

~1948-1952 the USA, Canada, Australia, and other countries agreed to accept Lithuanian refugees and so most of them departed, and their institutions closed. Many monuments Lithuanians built were also lost (e.g. Vytautas monument in Memmingen), likely being demolished by Germans or the new owners of those sites, yet some monuments survived.

Augsburg DP camp

Augsburg is likely the DP camp where the most reminders of Lithuanian DPs survive. The entire district of the town that served as a DP camp survives, yet the most important here are two Lithuanian monuments. In the late 1940s, some 1900 Lithuanian DPs lived in Augsburg alone.

A district that housed a DP camp in Augsburg, Germany

The Lithuanian cross was designed by the famous architect Jonas Mulokas, who later created his most famous works in the USA where he created the modern Lithuanian architectural style. Himself a DP who lived in Augsburg camp, he was still a young architect at the time, yet the huge wooden cross goes beyond Lithuanian traditions, with sculptures of Samogitian bishops Motiejus Valančius, Merkelis Giedraitis, St. Casimir, and Mother Mary surrounding the shaft of the cross. At the bottom of the cross, each side hosts an inscription in a different language: native Lithuanian, local German, as well as English and French (the languages of powers that were then occupying Western Germany).

Augsburg Lithuanian cross

The inscription reads “The Lithuanian emigrants in Augsburg thanking their benefactors and honoring the killed as well as entreating the Lord to bless them erected this Lithuanian cross which was witness that the Lithuanians displaced by the war longed for their native country and yearned after their liberty”. This very much sums up the goals and desires of the DPs at the time.

The cross was renewed in 1984 and 2015.

While living in this DP camp, Lithuanians would have a Lithuanian mass at the St. Canisius Church nearby. There, they put up a plaque in Latin commemorating the Lithuanian pains, which also includes two lines of the Lithuanian national anthem “Tegu meilė Lietuvos dega mūsų širdyse” (“Let the love of Lithuania burn in our hears”).

Lithuanian plaque at the St. Canisius Church

Besides Jonas Mulokas, many other famous Lithuanians stayed in Augsburg, including writer Antanas Škėma. Colonel Viktoras Reimontas died in Augsburg; he is buried under an iconic gravestone in Hermannstrasse Cemetery.

Viktoras Reimontas gravestone

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp hosts a Lithuanian monument that was one of the first monuments in Germany commemorating the victims of the Nazis. When it was built in 1947, Germans still viewed Nazis favorably, often protesting any attempts to try them as “victor’s justice”.

Flossenbürg Concentration (later DP) camp. Many of the original buildings were demolished

It was possible to build the monument due to unique situation of the Flossenbürg camp. Initially started as a prison for criminals in 1938 who worked in nearby mines, as the World War 2 progressed, the camp transformed into a prison for political prisoners from occupied countries, among them Lithuania. Then, as Nazi Germany was defeated, the camp housed Nazi war prisoners in 1945 and in 1946 it became a DP camp. Unbelievable, Lithuanian (and other) DPs who were fleeing the Soviet occupation were now housed in the same camp where many of their compatriots have been recently murdered. The crematorium, watchtower are standing still, as are the locations were murders took place.

Lithuanian monument at the Flossenbürg camp. Behind it on the left there is a crematorium and in the center - a guard tower.

However, such unique situation allowed the DPs to build the memorials in what was essentially their own territory. The area has numerous “graves” each dedicated by and for some nation whose prisoners were killed by Nazis here. One of these “graves” is Lithuanian. Yet Lithuanians also have their own unique monument which they built right at the beginning. This monument by Adolfas Tylius incorporates Vytis, Three Crosses (likely symbolic of the monument in Vilnius) and phrases in four languages (native Lithuanian, local German, occupying-powers English and French) describing this: “Defending the honour of our country we died, bequeathing as a rich legacy to humanity 2480 Lithuanian martyrs”.

Lithuanian plaque in Flossenbürg

While the nearby museum disputes the exact number, and the estimates of Lithuanian prisoners who were imprisoned in Flossenbürg vary wildly (250, 900, 3000), the number should probably be seen not as that of Lithuanians killed here, but of Lithuanians killed in some wider area by the Nazis, as Lithuanian DPs who lived here soon after the war had no possibility to know which of the Lithuanians were murdered in this camp and which were murdered somewhere else. The total number of people killed in this camp ranges from 30000 to 73296 in various estimates, they belonged to 18 ethnicities.

Valley of national monuments looking from above

The Flossenbürg Museum itself, by the way, was established only in 2007, with the buildings being used for other purposes until that, some of the original buildings were demolished. At the time, the field with the monuments would be marked as a cemetery rather than a concentration camp on the map.

Lithuanian Memorials in Detmold and Wehnen

While Lithuanian monuments survived in a few DP camps, in some of them monuments were built later, commemorating the Lithuanian story.

One such camp is Wehnen, where a metal Lithuanian cross was built by the DP children in 2015. This camp housed some 1000 Lithuanians, although the original buildings were mostly destroyed and a road was constructed. The monument by Dausakalys has an inscription on a separate plaque nearby: „Iš Tėvynės Lietuvos 1944 mes bėgome nuo Sovietų. DP lageryje Wehnen nuo 1946 iki 1959 m. mes radome prieglobstį ir naują Tėvynę. Mes rėmėmės krikščionišku tikėjimu, lietuvių kalba ir tautiškomis tradicijomis. Į visus pasaulio žemynus iš čia kelias vedė toliau naujos Tėvynės link. Tik nedaugelis liko čia Vokietijoje“. This means „We fled our motherland Lithuania in 1944 escaping the Soviets. In the DP lager Wehnen, we found a refuge and a new homeland from 1946 to 1959. Here we were living according to Christian belief, Lithuanian language, and ethnic traditions. From here, a road led to all the continents of the world towards a new motherland. Only a few remained here in Germany“. This sums up the story of the DPs well.

Lithuanina cross in Wehnen

Monument's dedication in Wehnen

On the now-student-dormitory where DPs were housed in Detmold was adorned by the statue of Lithuanian philosopher Vydūnas, as well as a plaque commemorating him. The plaque says “Lai bus atmintas Vydūnas ir jo krašto žmonės, po II pasaulinio karo radę prieglobstį šiuose namuose” (“Let Vydūnas and the people of his country, who found a refuge in this home after World War 2, be commemorated”). It also includes a quote representing Vydūnas’s philosophy that had “married” Lithuanian patriotism with Hindu mysticism: „Niekas pats savaime nepasidarė. Kiekvienas kilęs iš Didžiojo Slėpinio. Ir niekieno būtis nepriklauso nuo to, ką jis pats apie save žino“ (“No one has just naturally made itself. Everyone descends from the Great Secret. And no one’s being is correlated to what he knows about himself”).

Dormitory in Detmold that used to house Lithuanian DPs

Vydūnas belonged to Lithuanians of Lithuania Minor – the part of Lithuania which was ruled by Germany before World War 1. Unlike the rest of Lithuanians, Lithuania Minor Lithuanians were Lutherans and they had a different story than Lithuanian DPs: both Nazi Germany and Soviet Union saw them as „mostly Germans“, so Nazi Germany tried to evacuate them but Soviet Union persecuted them and killed many of them.

Vydūnas bust in Detmold

When in Germany, many Lithuanians from Lithuania Minor assimilated rather quickly, without joining the Lithuanian institutions and abandoning the language. Vydūnas, whose philosophy „married“ Lithuanian patriotism with eastern religiosity, was an exception, remaining with the Lithuanians until his death. With the total number of Lutheran Lithuanians who ended up in Germany far outnumbering that of the DPs (possibly ~200 000 or more), it is not strange that even with a low participation these Lutheran Lithuanians at first formed a considerable part of various Lithuanian organizations, unlike in any other countries (e.g. 50%).

Vydūnas plaque in Detmold

February 16th Lithuanian Private High School (castle)

Rennhof Castle in the small town of Hüttenfeld is the grandest Lithuanian site in Germany that has few equals in Western Europe. This castle, originally built in 1853 by the famous Rothschild banker family, was acquired by the Lithuanian National Executive Committee in Germany in 1953, using donations from Lithuanians worldwide. Lithuanians have renamed the castle Romuva; while this word means a Lithuanian pagan shrine, it was the word's similarity to the original name "Rennhof" rather than its meaning that made it a preferred choice to become a new name for the castle.

Rennhof Castle from above

At the time the castle was acquired, the DP camps almost empty, with most Lithuanians having departed for the USA, Canada, Australia or South America. Some 7000 Lithuanians remained in Germany, however (not counting the assimilating people from Lithuania Minor). Yet, they were spread across a large number of cities in West Germany. There were too few of them anywhere to actually keep the DP-established network of Lithuanian schools or other institutions operational (at one time in the 1940s, this network consisted of 26 high schools (gymnasiums), 14 middle schools (progymnasiums), 5 vocational schools, and 112 primary schools). As such, they decided to acquire a single large building that would serve as the main HQ for Germany’s Lithuanians with, most famously, the western world’s only Lithuanian boarding school, moved here from Diepholz DP camp in 1954, where it had been established in 1950. The current location is said to have been chosen to be as far from East Germany as possible, as, at the time, it was believed that Soviets could try to expand East Germany by attacking West Germany.

This school is the February 16th Gymnasium, named after Lithuania’s independence day. Over time, the gymnasium outgrew the castle, with a separate school building constructed in 1963-1965, a girls’ dormitory in 1972, a boys’ dormitory in 1985-1987, and a school building extension to meet the tightening German rules was built in 2012. The expansions of the gymnasium were funded by Lithuanians all over the world who saw it as a primary Lithuanian hub in Europe, especially while Lithuania was occupied from 1940 to 1990, as well as the governments of Lithuania and Germany. Note: while "February 16th Gymnasium" is the official name for the school in the Lithuanian language since 1951 ("Vasario 16-osios gimnazija"), in German language, it is typically referred to just as "Private Lithuanian Gymnasium" ("Privates Litauisches Gymnasium"), with gymnasium meaning a higher level high school in both Germany and Lithuania.

1963-1965 building of the gymnasium

Initially, the February 16th gymnasium taught Lithuanian children from all over Germany as no Lithuanian schools remained in their cities. The children would live in the dormitories, coming home only sometimes. Over time, Lithuanian-American, Lithuanian-Australian and other DP children also discovered this school, where they typically learned better Lithuanian than anywhere else, both because of the teaching methods developed here and the mere fact that with Lithuanian children from different parts of the world studying and living together, Lithuanian language was the only one they had in common, making it the language they used to talk among themselves (unlike in their countries of birth where they would often use “more convenient” local languages to speak to their Lithuanian peers). Lithuanian-American Lithuanian Foundation would also fund Lithuanians from South America to study here, often for a year after completing their education at home; many of these February 16th gymnasium alumni now are the best-speakers of Lithuanian in their communities and the souls of various Lithuanian clubs of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. This program ended in 2009.

Lithuanian sculptures in the gymnasium

After Lithuania became independent in 1990, however, the school lost the German support awarded to it as a refugee school. In order to have continuing state support, the school received full state accreditation 1999, beginning to accept German students and having a German curriculum; by 2012, nearly all the lessons were conducted in German language. However, the Lithuanian students (now mostly the children of post-1990 migrants to Germany) still learn Lithuanian language and history in Lithuanian, while German students (now a majority) have lessons about Lithuania taught in German. The school is Christian; it offers religious education for both Catholics and Lutherans.

Schedule of the gymnasium uses Lithuanian symbols

Over the time, the number of students in the gymnasium varied. In 1954, it had 180 students (100 protestants and 80 Catholics). However, by that time, many Lithuanian DPs were still leaving Germany, with 51 students eventually emigrating. In 1957, only 123 students remained (65 Catholics and 58 Protestants); among them were 15 students from other European countries. In 1968 there were 103 students, in 1972 – 77. Currently, there are ~180 students (but two thirds of them are not of Lithuanian descent).

While the gymnasium now mostly operates outside the castle itself, the castle includes:
*Lithuanian Cultural Institute with a library of Lithuanian books, an archive of Lithuanian materials, and a collection of Lithuanian traditional artworks, established in 1981. Many of the artworks that were taken out of Lithuania by the escaping DPs or created in the Lithuanian DP camps eventually ended up in the Rennhof Castle.
*The official HQ of the entire Lithuanian Community in Germany.
*A chapel of Lithuanian saints, opened in 1989 after the castle was renovated after the 1984 fire. A stained-glass window by Antanas Grabauskas was installed in 1993. It includes St. Casimir, Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis, the churches where they are buried, a traditional Lithuanian cross, a Lithuanian coat of arms, and other symbols. Next to the chapel, a plaque for priest Alfonsas Bernatonis (1914-1988) is installed. He found the Rennhof castle when looking for a new location for the school.

Lithuanian chapel in the Rennhof castle

Close-up of the stained-glass window

The castle complex also includes a park with many sculptural benches based on the Lithuanian and German folk tales. Other sculptures are based on the top sites of Lithuania or its legends, such as the Vilnius Gediminas Castle or the Iron wolf.

A folktale-inspired bench and a copy of the Gediminas Castle

In front of the gymnasium a traditional Lithuanian sun-cross stands. Originally built in the Seligenstadt Lithuanian DP camp, it was moved to Rennhof Castle when the camp was closed. The deteriorated original was replaced by the current cross in 1988/1989 by gymnasium students Robertas Ibarra (from Uruguay) and Mykolas Vaigelis (from West Germany). The original German-Latin-Lithuanian plaque asking God for blessings in a difficult journey of exile (signed “Exiled people who loved God and Fatherland” – originally “Viešpatie, maldaujame tavo globos ir pagalbos sunkioje tremties kelionėje! Čia gyveno lietuviai tremtiniai, kurie mylėjo Dievą ir Tėvynę”) was reinstalled on the cross.

Lithuanian cross of the Gymnasium

Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian palace in Haus Annaberg

In Bonn, the former capital of West Germany, Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians acquired a palace. While the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian DP histories are very similar, this is the only building anywhere in the world operated by the three groups together.

The idea of such an institution came to Jazeps Urdze. He was an ethnically Latvian Lutheran priest who spent his pre-refugee life in Lithuania, thus becoming acquainted with both languages and cultures. He traveled through the Baltic DP camps, encouraging Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians to search for God through the tragedy of World War 2. Urdze said to have received a vision of God asking him to create a home where these people could live together.

Haus Annaberg

Initially, his community lived in an abandoned airport given to them by the Allied occupational authorities but, after renovating that airport with their own labor and the donations of other Lutherans, they had it taken away by the newly independent West Germany. Then, they acquired the 1898-built Haus Annaberg palace in 1952, which was then expanded by a dormitory where Baltic students studying in Bonn could live.

Haus Annaberg park

To this day, Haus Annaberg hosts Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian events, although there are more of the latter. It has some 50 members, most of them German-born. Some ethnic Germans of the Baltic states who were allowed to emigrate by the Soviets after World War 2 also joined. The opulent authentic rooms of the palace could be rented as it also serves as a hotel.

Most famously, when, after declaring its independence in 1990, Lithuania was attacked by the Soviet Union in January 1991, the foreign minister of Lithuania Algirdas Saudargas spent a night here, with a mission to establish a Lithuanian government in exile in case Lithuania falls again to the Soviet Union (which didn’t happen).

Haus Annaberg interior

Lithuanian Plaza and Chapel in Bad Wörishofen

A small town of Bad Wörishofen in Bavaria has a Lithuanian Square [Litauenplatz], while the modern St. Ulrich church that stands at this square has a St. Casimir Chapel. A German inscription at its entrance says “Chapel of St. Casimir, patron of the Lithuanian people”, while behind the chapel’s altar, there is a mural of the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania.

St. Casimir Chapel

Inside the St. Casimir Chapel

These places were made possible by a Lithuanian DP priest who served this otherwise regular German parish Antanas Bunga. He served here until 1985 but the Lithuanian history continued, as another Lithuanian Antanas Deksnys worked here until 1999. During World War 2, some 25% of all Lithuanian priests fled, knowing that they were prime targets of the atheist Soviet occupational regime. There were more such priests than were needed to staff Lithuanian parishes worldwide, therefore, some were posted at non-Lithuanian parishes. That said, in addition to serving their parish, the priests of Bad Wörishofen also served the Lithuanians of Germany (while Antanas Deksnys was made a “bishop for all Lithuanians in Western Europe” in 1969). Being especially patriotic, these priests also tried to remind the locals about Lithuania and its plight, as evident in the Lithuanian sites of Bad Wörishofen.

Litauenplatz at Bad Worishofen

Saxon mile-posts with Lithuanian symbols

To this day many towns of Saxony are adorned by elaborate mileposts dating to the 18th century when Lithuania, Poland, and Saxony were ruled by the same monarchs for a period of 65 years (August II the Strong and August III). Many of them are adorned with a coat of arms of Lithuania-Poland and Saxony. This coat of arms includes two Lithuanian coats of arms (Vytis). Such mileposts were first erected in 1721 to mark the distances from market squares or city/town gates to the neighboring cities/towns. ~200 out of ~300 are said to survive, many of them renovated in recent decades as a pride of their towns.

Vytis (Lithuanian coat of arms) on a town center milepost

Not every milepost includes the Lithuanian coat of arms, however. There were, generally, several types of mileposts: the most elaborate ones (with the coat of arms) were built near the town gates (showing the distances to the nearby towns in that direction) or, later, in the central squares (showing the distances to all the nearby towns and cities in all directions). In addition to those, there were roadside mileposts built at a similar distance from each other (~566 m) – these do not include the coats of arms.

A city center milepost

A roadside milepost, without coats of arms

The Lithuanian coat of arms dating to the era appears many more locations in Saxony than just these mileposts. For example, the Pöppelmannbrücke bridge in Grimma is marked by a large Lithuanian coat of arms (the bridge had been commissioned by August II). Many Vytis signs also exist on the most famous buildings of Dresden, then capital of Saxony, including its Zwinger Palace, the Dresden Cathedral, the “Golden Horseman” monument to August II himself, and a Fürstenzug mosaic showing the history of Saxony.

Vytis and Polish coats of arms on the bridge at Grimma

Fürstenzug mosaic with Vytis

Lithuanian pre-WW1 migrant heritage

World War 2 era was not the first time Germany served as a transitional point for Lithuanians who left their homeland. This also happened before World War 1, when some 300 000 Lithuanians emigrated to the USA. With no direct shipping routes from Lithuania to the USA, most of them would go by land to Germany and board ships at its ports, such as Hamburg or Bremerhaven. No direct Lithuanian heritage sites remain from this era, but the German museums of emigration in these port cities includes stories that were typical to them (and other Eastern European migrants who boarded vessels to their new lives here).

Emigration museum in Bermerhaven

”Lithuanian” monuments in Berlin

Berlin, in theory, has several places related to Lithuania.

The Soviet memorial in Treptower Park (of what was East Berlin) has 16 concrete slabs that supposedly commemorate the 16 Soviet Socialist Republics of the Soviet Union that existed at the time of its construction (1949). One of them was the then-recently-occupied Lithuanian SSR. That said, each of the slabs is adorned with generic Soviet propaganda and Stalin quotes (in Russian language with German translations) with nothing at all related to the Soviet Socialist Republics they claim to represent. This was common in the Stalinist era when the memorial was built, when Soviet Socialist Republics were just meant to be russified and underwent genocides. The number of slabs thus simply represents the extent of conquests by the Soviet Union and not its nations or cultures. While many such memorials have falled in Eastern Europe, this one continues to be maintained and even was renovated by the unified Germany long after the communist East Germany ceased to exist.

A concrete block representing one of the "Soviet Socialist Republics" of the Soviet Union

A more unique story is that of a 10 m Obelisk 11 March by Braco Dimitrijević in Charlottenburg Park. The monument says “March 11th, this could be a day of historical importance“. It was erected in 1979. In 1990, Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11th, thus seemingly fulfilling the prophecy on the monument. This fact made the monument popular among Berlin Lithuanians for various events, the supposed “prophechy coming true” even mentioned by the foreign minister of Lithuania. That said, Dmitrijevic built numerous such memorials for „non-famous places and times that may be famous“, while the reason why he chose March 11th for this particular monument was because he asked a passer-by for his birthday, and the passer-by replied “March 11th“.

Obelisk 11 March

March 11th inscription

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France

France never had a major Lithuanian community, yet it has some of the largest number of Lithuanian heritage sites in Western Europe, ranging from Lithuanian symbols adorning some of France’s famous buildings to famous Lithuanians buried in France’s cemeteries.

Lithuanian embassy in France

Lithuanian France - what is it?

Lithuanian heritage sites in France generally fall into several key types, each of them linked to small-in-numbers yet large-in-influence Lithuanian refugee groups that found home in France at different times of history.

1. Graves of famous 20th-century Lithuanian artists who chose France both because of its prime role in the art world and it being a safe haven from the occupations that ravaged Lithuania itself in 1940-1990.

Graphic designer Žibuntas Mikšys grave in Père Lachaise Cemtery, Paris

2. Bas-reliefs of Lithuanian coat of arms on various key French buildings built there by the 19th-century Polish and Lithuanian nobility, who had migrated to France after the failed 1830s and 1860s uprisings against the Russian Empire that had annexed Lithuania and parts of Poland. Having lost their cause, these influential people, who often spoke Polish natively but were of Lithuanian descent, made their global center in the “revolutionary megalopolis” of Paris, at the time 3rd-6th largest city in the world and still having living memory of the successful Great French Revolution.

Lithuanian coat of arms on a building in Paris

3. Even earlier bas-reliefs of Lithuanian coat of arms dating to the 16th and 18th centuries, when a couple of Polish-Lithuanian kings (Henry Valois and Stanisław Leszczyński) ended up their lives in France due to political reasons but never completely forgot their tenure in Poland and Lithuania, building Polish and Lithuanian symbols in France.

A historic clock in Paris with a Lithuanian coat of arms

4. Sites related to the Lithuanian diplomatic efforts to court France as a major European power after Lithuania became independent in 1918. This includes a former Lithuanian embassy of the era and graves of Lithuanian diplomats who had to stay in France for good after the independence of Lithuania was extinguished in 1940, as well as memorials built to the most famous such diplomat (also a writer) Oskaras Milašius (also known by his Polish name Oscar Milosz as those were the times when Polish and Lithuanian nations were just undergoing their final divorce due to the conflict of Vilnius, one of the areas where newly-independent Lithuania needed French support).

Oskaras Milašius statue in Fontainebleau

5. Sites related to the small community of Lithuanian refugees (DPs) who left the Soviet-occupied Lithuania and ended up in France. While that wave of Lithuanian emigration in 1944 was massive and created entire Lithuanian communities elsewhere in the world (USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany), WW2-ravaged France was not a popular choice to settle, but the community of some 550 refugees (a disproportionate number of them artistic-minded) used to have its own priest and Lithuanian mass in Paris, which is marked by a plaque in St. Augustine church.

Priest Petrošius plaque in St. Augustine Chruch of Paris

6. Sites related to modern post-1990 Lithuanian-French relations, such as Lithuania’s new embassy or Jardin Lituanie in Paris.

Jardin Lituanie in Paris

Where to find Lithuanian heritage sites in France?

The major areas of Lithuanian heritage sites are concentrated in and around Paris. Paris was the center of the 19th century noble Polish-Lithuanian diaspora just as it was a global center of art and a center of activities for Lithuanian diplomats. There are so many Lithuanian sites in and around Paris that they are listed in a separate article. Paris is the location of numerous 16th-19th century Vytis bas-reliefs, as well as burials for diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis, painters Vytautas Kasiulis and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (Mstislavas Dobužinskis), philosopher Emanuel Levinas, graphic designer Žibuntas Mikšys, and more. Paris also has both the historic and the current Lithuanian embassy buildings and Jardin Lituanie.

Diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis gravestone in Paris

Two towns near Paris also host significant Lithuanian heritage: Montmorency, a hub for the 19th-century Polish-Lithuanian diaspora with many Vytises, and Fontainebleau, where Oskaras Milašius spent his final years and is buried; a statue was built for him there, a square named after him and two commemorative plaques erected, making him one of the most-commemorated Lithuanians abroad.

Lithuanian coats of arms at Montmorency church commemorating Czartoryski who fled Lithuania for France after the failed Polish-Lithuanian revolts

The very heart of Nancy city – UNESCO-World-Heritage-inscribe Place Stanislas was built the former king of Lithuania (and Poland) Stanisław Leszczyński, whose monument stands at the center of the square, while his Lithuanian and Polish coats of arms adorn key buildings of the city, such as the City Hall and Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours church were the king was initially buried.

Place Stanislas entrance

Lithuanian and Polish coats of arms at Place Stansilas

The story behind all this is such: during his two brief reigns (1704-1709 and 1733-1736) this French- and Swedish-supported king had many enemies (Russians, Austrians) which forced him to abdicate. In that era defeated noble statesmen used to get statelets to rule. Leszczyński received the Duchy of Lorraine (established precisely for him) from the French. This country consisted of Nancy city and its hinterland. Leszczyński served as its duke until he died in 1766, after which the territory was returned to France (as had been planned initially). During his reign there Leszczyński put Polish and Lithuanian symbols in many localities of the Duchy's capital city Nancy.

Church that was the enitial burial place of Leszczynski

Church that was the initial burial place of Leszczynski

Close-up of the Lithuanian coat of arms on this church

A mural at Strasbourg‘s 14th-century church of St-Pierre-le-Jeune includes Lithuania (spelled as Ligavia) as the last in the line of European nations to Christianity. Being a center for European institutions (European Parliament, Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights), Strasbourg also has a Lithuanian community and an oak for the 25th anniversary Lithuanian independence was planted in its Orangerie park in 2015 03 11, marked by a plaque.

Mural depicting the Christianisation of Europe in Strasbourg

Lithuanian tree in Strasbourg

Several key Lithuanian figures are buried in southern France, where they ended up after Lithuania had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. Ernestas Galvanauskas, a prime minister of Lithuania in 1919-1920 and 1922-1924, is buried in Aix-les-Bains town near the Alps, under a unique gravestone designed by a famous Lithuanian-French modernist sculptor Antanas Mončys, himself a Soviet-occupation era refugee who ended up living in Paris since 1950. His gravestone is inscribed with the older version of the words of the Lithuanian national anthem, „Tegul saulė Lietuvos tamsumus prašalina“ (Let the Lithuanian sun shed the darknesses).

Ernestas Galvanauskas gravestone

Meanwhile, the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin cemetery near Nice is the final resting place for Jurgis Savickis, a diplomat who was also famous as a Lithuanian writer. Having worked for Lithuania in Genève, he bought a house in Roquebrune where he spent the entire World War 2 and remained there.

Jurgis Savickis gravestone

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Switzerland

The importance of Switzerland to Lithuania peaked in 1880s-1930s. Main political decisions that shaped the contemporary Republic of Lithuania were made here while the Lithuanian elite were frequent guests in the country.

With the 1890s advent of traveling and popular belief in the health-restoring powers of mountain air, Lithuanians (mainly rich and/or famous) started to visit Switzerland.

Swiss universities were also popular among Lithuanians.

Commemorative plaques for Lithuanian arists

Maironis (Lithuania's most famous poet and national revival ideologist) spent time in Lucerne where he wrote poems about both Lithuania ("Jaunoji Lietuva" - "Young Lithuania") and Switzerland (Four Cantons lake, Rigi Kulm mountain). St. Charles Hall villa where Maironis used to stay in Meggen suburb of Lucerne (6045 Meggen; Bezeholzstrasse) now has a memorial plaque created by the Lithuanian-Swiss Community.

Villa where Maironis penned some of his most famous works

Maironis commemorative plaque on that villa

Meanwhile, Lithuanian modern painter Antanas Samuolis (1899-1942) and philosopher Ramūnas Bytautas (1886-1915) both went to Switzerland to heal their tuberculosis and both died there. Both are buried in Leysin cemetery, as Leysin was popular for such health tourism. In Switzerland, however, ,gravestones are temporary and Bytautas's and Samuolis's gravestones no longer surviev; modern-day Lithuanians of Switzerland marked the fact that they were buried there by commemorative plaques located on the cemetery wall.

Bytautas and Samuolis plaques on the Leysin cemetery wall

Sites of Switzerland related to the rebirth of Lithuania

When World War 1 was raging in Europe (and Lithuania was caught in its Eastern Front) neutral Switzerland played a key role in developing Lithuanian aspirations. Lithuanian Informational Bureau worked in Lausanne in 1915-1919, propagating the idea of independent Lithuania. Seven political conferences took place (4 of them in Lausanne) where key Lithuanian politicians reached a consensus on future goals (borders of expected independent Lithuania, completely abandoning the idea of union with Poland, etc.).

In 1918 Lithuania declared its independence while in 1919 League of Nations (United Nations precursor) was established in Geneve. Lithuania now had its official representation and clearer goals than ever: to secure a wide recognition of its independence (1918-1922), to win support in territorial disputes over Vilnius (vs. Poland) and Klaipėda (vs. Germany).

However, even before Lithuania became independent, Switzerland attracted numerous figures of the Lithuanian national revival who studied in the universities of democratic Switzerland, among them, for example, the geographer Kazys Pakštas. In the university of Freibourg, these Lithuanians made a local Swiss Joseph Ehret especially interested in the Lithuanian cause. So much so, that Ehret wrote a book on Lithuania, helped Lithuania establish its information agency that is named after him to this date (ELTA - Ehret Lithuanian Telegram Agency / Ereto Lietuvos telegramų agentūra). He eventually moved to Lithuania, became a Lithuanian citizen, and married a Lithuanian woman, whose last name Jakaitis he also took. At one point, he was even elected to the Lithuanian parliament. While he had to go back to Switzerland as Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, his deeds for Lithuanian causes inspired the Lithuanians of Switzerland to put up a comemorative plaque on a building where he lived in Basel. On the plaque that also includes his portrait, he is said to have been "son of Switzerland and patriot of Lithuania".

Ehret plaque in Basel

Lithuanian DPs and politicians in Switzerland

After the Soviet occupation of Lithuania during World War 2, the Lithuanian community in Switzerland was joined by new people who escaped the Soviet Genocide who were known as DPs (displaced persons). About 200 of them were housed in the Lithuanian DP camp "Židinys" in Yverdon-les-Bains in 1945-1946. The former camp is now Hotel La Prairie, but the site's history is marked by a small monument in its yard. The monument with a Lithuanian coat of arms was built in 2020, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the DP camp. An oak was planted nearby by the Lithuanians.

Yverdon-les-Bains Lithuanian camp memorial

During World War 2, the neutral Switzerland was a coveted place for Lithuanians to flee. Not only were the Lithuanians safe there from the Soviet persecution, they were also safe from war. However, entering Switzerland was not easy, and, after World War 2, most of the Lithuanians who were in Switzerland had to move elsewhere.

As such, Lithuanians in Switzerland have always been few in number but were mainly influential intellectuals who continued to advance Lithuanian independence goals through local media, as well as were instrumental in collecting donations for the establishment of a Lithuanian gymnasium in nearby Germany. Among the Lithuanians who remained in Switzerland after World War 2 was Jurgis Šaulys, one of the signatories of the 1918 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence. Jurgis Šaulys grave is located in Castagnola cemetery of Lugano.

Jurgis Šaulys grave in Lugano

Another signatory of the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence Kazimieras Šaulys also lived in Lugano. Being a priest, he served the local St. Brigitte convent of nuns. In that convent, a commemorative room for Kazimieras Šaulys was opened. The room includes his photo and a plaque about him. Unlike Jurgis, Kazimieras is not buried in Lugano but rather in Rome.

The fact that two signatories of the Lithuanian declaration of independence lived in Lugano is impressive knowing that there were just 20 signatories in total.

Kazimieras Šaulys room in Lugano

Lithuanian symbols from the 19th century

Switzerland served as a place of refuge for people from Lithuania long before World War 2. After the failed Polish-Lithuanian uprising against the Russian Empire rule in the 1830s, a significant part of the Lithuanian elite fled the country, some of them ending up in Switzerland.

Vladislovas Broel-Plateris (Wladyslaw Broel-Plater, 1808-1889), a Vilnius-born 19th century noble, has rented Rapperswil-Jona castle for 99 years and establish the Museum of Poland there, which is still in operation.

Vytis symbol (Lithuanian coat of arms) is also featured there together with the coat of arms of Poland, e.g. on the column near the entrance of the castle. That is beacause before being annexed by the major great powers of Europe in 1795, Poland-Lithuania formed a united country. Those annexations happened before Plater was even born (1795) thus the museum served as a memory for the country he considered his homeland but never saw in person.

Column with Vytis at Rapperswil

At that time, however, the elite of both Poland and Lithuania still saw themselves as a part of the same community, with Polish language being the language of science and literature among them, a situation that continued until the Lithuanian national revival that began in late 19th century, many members of which (e.g. Maironis) also had spent prolonged time in Switzerland.

Other Lithuanian-Swiss relations

Even today the Lithuanians of Switzerland are disproportionately active in memorizing the Lithuanian-Swiss contacts in the past, with the Lithuanian Community in Switzerland being instrumental in erecting the aforementioned commemorative plaques. Multiple books have been published on Lithuanians in Switzerland.

One such work found out that Lithuanian-Swiss contacts far predated the 19th century. During the 16th-18th centuries, Italian architects and sculptors have been popular across Europe in building and decorating churches and manors. Many such artists came to Lithuania and left their works in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai, and elsewhere. As much as 40 of these artists were actually not from Italy-proper but from the ethnically Italian Swiss canton of Ticino, where they left their other works.

There were far more famous Lithuanians who spent time in Switzerland for health, studying, political, or other reasons at the time when mass tourism was not available. These included Jonas Bili8nas, Jonas Basanvičius, Mikas Petrauskas, Petras Kalpokas, Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Kipras Petrauskas, Balys Sruoga, Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas, Salomėja Nėris.

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Paris

While Paris never had a large Lithuanian community, over the centuries, it has attracted some of the most important Lithuanians. Lithuanian artists, writers, politicians, and nobles made Paris their home, leaving numerous traces behind them.

Some of Paris‘s most important buildings thus are adorned by Lithuanian symbols and bas-reliefs, while some of its most fabled cemeteries have famous Lithuanian burials.

Lithuanian coat of arms in top Paris sites

Paris arguably has more Lithuanian coats of arms in bas-reliefs on its old buildings than almost any other city. These coats of arms (Vytis) were put there by the noble families that were either from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or lived there.

Central Paris (Ile de la Cite) is claimed to have the oldest Lithuanian coat of arms outside Lithuania. That symbol adorns the massive clock on the facade of Tour l‘Horloge of the Palais de Justice. It was built there by Henry Valois (1551-1589) who first was elected a king of Poland and Lithuania (1573) only to abandon that dual crown once it became possible to become a king of his native France (1574). He never forgot his „first throne“, however, adding both Lithuanian and Polish symbols to this clock with the inscription „God gave two crowns, he will also give a third one“ (in heaven).

A historic clock in Paris with a Lithuanian coat of arms

While the French monarchy was hereditary at the time, the Polish-Lithuanian one was elective, with foreign persons often chosen as kings by the nobility, and then required to sign „pacta conventa“ that guaranteed the rights of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility at the expense of the king‘s power. Needless to say, such a „limited throne“ was not liked by Henry Valois who could have a greater power in a more powerful country (France). Before that became possible, though, he too signed the „pacta conventa“ with Polish-Lithuanian nobility, something commemorated by a plaque inside arguably the most famous historic place in Paris – the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Close-up of the French and Polish-Lithuanian coats of arms and the inscription on the clock

The Great Migration’s Lithuanian bas-reliefs

Most of the other Vytises of Paris, though, date to the later era, namely the 19th century. At the time, Lithuania was under Russian Imperial rule (1795-1915). Attempts by the local nobility to throw down the Russian yoke failed twice (1830-1831, 1863-1864), leading to even harsher persecutions. Avoiding such fate, many noble families fled westwards in what is known in Polish historiography as „The Great Migration“. Most of them settled in Paris, one of the world’s largest cities at the time.

Able to save some of their money and influence, these families acquired massive palaces, adding the Lithuanian symbol Vytis to many of them.

Lithuanian coat of arms on a building in Paris (Montparnasse)

The center of that Polish-Lithuanian diaspora was established at Hotel Lambert. This 17th-century building was acquired in 1843 by the Czartoryski (Čartoryskis) noble family, who built Lithuanian coat arms Vytis at the top of its courtyard façade (impossible to see from the street). Looking closely, Vytis here also includes a small building on its corner, as this is not the original Lithuanian coat of arms, but rather its little-altered version used by the Czartoryski family as their own symbol.

In 1849, Adam Czartoryski opened a school in the Montparnasse district, its building still adorned by both Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms.

Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms on the school in Montparnasse

Yet, the area of Paris with the most “Great Migration” heritage is the suburb of Montmorecy, as many of that diaspora followed their compatriots who settled down and died there. Its Collegiale Saint-Martin church alone has almost a dozen Vytis bas-reliefs on its interior, adorning various plaques for the notable people of Lithuanian origins; the plaque for Adam Czartoryski himself includes 5 Vytis symbols, the main one of them also including Columns of Gediminas, another Lithuanian patriotic symbol.

Vytis symbols at the memorial for Adam Czartoryski in the Montmorency church

Montmorecy’s Champeaux cemetery became known as the “Polish necropolis” due to many famous burials there, including the initial burial place of the writer Adomas Mickevičius (Adam Mickiewicz), himself part of the Great Migration, for whom there is also a large statue (built on 1928 by Antoine Bourdelle) and a museum in central Paris. Mickiewicz was later reburied from Paris yet the original gravestone remains as well.

Mickiewicz monument in central Paris

While many families of „The Great Migration“ had Lithuanian origins, they typically spoke Polish natively, as Polish, being a language of science, art, and faith in Lithuania at the time, had slowly displaced Lithuanian from the Lithuanian nobility families. As such, it is often disputed whether these people were Poles or Lithuanians as, indeed, at the time, this wasn‘t such a hard distinction and a person may have been considered to be both at the same time. There were no divisions within the “Great Migration” diaspora between those of Polish and Lithuanian origins, and Polish was used as the main language by them all, e.g., in Montparnasse school. While Adam Mickiewicz wrote in Polish, his literature is based on Lithuania, praising the country.

A grave of a person born in Vilnius in the "Polish necropolis" of Montmorency

Lithuanian Embassy in Paris

When Lithuania regained its statehood from Russia in 1918, France was a major European power, a role cemented by its victory in World War 1. France thus may have held the key in ensuring Lithuania’s ambitions of survival, defending against Russians and Poles in Lithuania’s wars of independence, and gaining the port of Klaipėda that was detached from Germany due to the region’s Lithuanian population and temporarily placed under the French rule.

Lithuanians thus acquired an opulent building in central Paris at 14 Place General Catroux to be used as the Lithuanian legation. Sadly, after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and Nazi Germany (allied to the Soviets at the time) overran Paris, the legation building was taken away and given to the Soviet Union. To this day, it is used by Russia, despite Russia having no legal deed to it. Still, the Columns of Gediminas bas-relief continues to adorn the symbol, even though a larger Vytis bas-relief was removed by the Soviets ~1960.

The former Lithuanian legation

Columns of Gediminas above the entrance of the original Lithuanian legation in Paris

Lithuanian attempts to regain the building after the 1990 independence were futile. Not wishing to enrage Russians, the French decided to give Lithuania a compensation instead of returing the building. For that compensation, Lithuania acquired a building close to the former legation in 2002 (a commemorative plaque inside cites 2002 11 15 as an inauguration date). After reconstruction, this new Lithuanian embassy also includes columns of Gediminas symbols (on its gate), while inside one may find a flag from the original embassy, guarded by diplomat’s son Perkūnas Liutkus until Lithuania’s independence.

Current Lithuanian embassy in France

Courtyard gate with the columns of Gediminas at the new embassy

Next to the former embassy, a small park was renamed Jardin Lituanie in 2023 on the initiative of the Lithuanian ambassador.

Jardin Lituanie in Paris

Fontainebleau and Oskaras Milašius

Fontainebleau town near Paris famous for its palace has a total of 5 Lithuanian heritage sites, all of them related to a single person – Oskaras Milašius, the first leader of Lithuania’s legation to France.

In his beloved Fontainebleau one may find his grave, a monument to him, two commemorative plaques, and a square named after him.

Square named after Milašius

A plaque on l’Hotel de ‘Aigle Noir, where he used to stay in the years 1930-1939, describes him as a “French writer, poet, Lithuanian diplomat and bird lover”, which is an accurate description, as Milašius wrote exclusively in French and regarded French culture in high light – however, he was the official representative of Lithuania. Interestingly, in all the French sources his name is written as “Oscar Milosz”. This is a Polish version of his name. At the time, a name used to be translated as any other word, with him signing as Milosz in Polish and Milašius in Lithuanian. He chose the Polish version of his name when speaking French, as he arrived in France in 1889, at the time when Polish was still largely the literary language among the Lithuanian elite. As Lithuania became independent in 1918 and engulfed in conflict with Poland, though, Milašius clung to his Lithuanian roots, agreeing to represent the reborn nation of his ancestors.

Hotel where Milašius used to stay

Plaque on this hotel, dedicated to Milašius

In 1939, Milašius finally acquired his own house in beloved Fontainebleau, and this house is where a second commemorative plaque to him is erected, listing him as a “French poet of Lithuanian origins”. Sadly, Milašius died soon afterwards in 1939 03 02. At the time, Lithuania was still independent, so a gravestone for him was erected by Lithuania and is inscribed in both Lithuanian and French, claiming him to be a “Poet, writer, and Lithuania’s first representative in France”.

Oskaras Milašius house (1939)

Oskaras Milašius plaque adorning the house he owned in 1939

Oskaras Milašius grave

In 2019 a sculpture of Milašius was built at the courtyard of Fontainebleau mediateque. Milašius’s fan society that exists in France initiated the monument and the Lithuanian sculpture Klaudijus Pūdymas is its author, with many sponsors from Lithuania listed on a plaque. The sculpture represents Milašius with a hole where his heart should be and a bird – playing on a legend that Milašius had a heart attack while chasing one of his beloved birds. A book under Milašius armpit has these words in Lithuanian written on it – “Tos žemės vardas – Lietuva – užvaldė mano protą ir jausmus. Aš trokštu jums atskleisti ją. Ateikit…” (“The name of that land – Lithuania – came to rule my mind and feelings. I strive to open it up for you. Please come…”).

Oskaras Milašius statue in Fontainebleau

Displaced persons and famous Lithuanian burials

After World War 2, Paris attracted up to 500 Lithuanian displaced persons who settled there for good. These were the people who had fled Lithuania in 1944 when they understood that the Soviet re-occupation of Lithuania is imminent, and, having lived through the 1940-1941 and often barely escaped death at the time, they knew that remaining in Lithuania would have meant persecution or death to them.

While this Lithuanian DP community of Paris was too small to acquire a club or a church, they had their permanent hub at the grand St. Augustine Church (1860-1871), led by priest Jonas Petrošius between 1955 and 2004; after Petrošius died, a commemorative plaque in the basement chapel of the church was unveiled for him and the Lithuanian community spirit in 2017.

St. Augustine Church in Paris

Priest Petrošius plaque in St. Augustine Chruch of Paris

A disproportionate number of these post-WW2 Lithuanian-Parisians were artists, who chose Paris for its role in the world of art. Many such famous Lithuanians are now buried in the cemeteries of Paris.

One of the most famous Lithuanian painters Vytautas Kasiulis (1918-1995), known for his colorful paintings, was buried in Pantin cemetery (relocated to Lithuania later but the gravestone remains).

Vytautas Kasiulis gravestone

Diplomat of Lithuania Jurgis Baltrušaitis (1873-1944) and his art-loving son (1903-1988) are buried in Montrouge cemetery, under a gravestone with a traditional Lithuanian sun-cross.

Diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis gravestone

Lithuanian graphic designer Žibuntas Mikšys (1923-2013) has his final resting place at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery, arguably the most famous in Paris where the likes of Jim Morrison and Edith Piaf are also buried.

Graphic designer Žibuntas Mikšys grave in Père Lachaise Cemtery, Paris

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky (1875-1957), a Russian painter of Lithuanian descent who, having fled Russian communist revolution, became a citizen of Lithuania and created there during the interwar period, becoming its citizen, eventually died in New York yet requested his remains to be buried in the art capital of Paris, its Russian Orthodox cemetery of Sainte Genevieve des Bois.

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky grave

Kaunas-born Jewish philosopher Emanuel Levinas is buried in Pantin cemetery. He also has a small square named after him in Paris. He came earlier than the DPs, back in the 1920s.

Levinas Square

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Iceland

Iceland is dear to Lithuanians for being the first new country in the world to recognize Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union (in February 1991). Merely a year had been passed at the time from independence restoration (1990 03 11) and the Icelandic move (directed by foreign minister Jon Baldvin Hanibalsson) was bold indeed. The Soviet Union still considered Lithuania its territory and Iceland had to ensure another source for natural resources in case Soviet Union embargoed it as a revenge for recognition of Lithuania.

Lithuanians organized a "thank you Iceland" action in 2006, hoping to collect 300 000 "thank you" signatures - one for every Icelander. One out of 10 Lithuanians would have had to sign this and while only over 200 000 signatures have been collected this was also impressive. The signatures were presented to the president of Iceland. It is unclear where they are now.

~2006 the number of Lithuanians in Iceland started to increase rapidly.

Lithuania is a country of 3 million therefore even if a large percentage of Lithuanians emigrate somewhere in that location they usually make a much smaller minority. Not so in Iceland: only ~4000 Lithuanians moved there but they are already the Iceland's second-largest minority (after Poles) and makes up 1,2% of total population.

In 2012 direct air route was opened between Reykjavik (Icelandic capital) and Lithuania. The medium-haul (2863 km) route is notable for two reasons: Iceland is the smallest (population-wise) country to have a direct air route to Lithuania and this route is also the longest non-stop route from Lithuania. It mainly serves the community of Lithuanian Icelanders.

There are Lithuanian musical groups and a language school for kids. There are no Lithuanian buildings, however. There used to be bar "Vilnius" in Reykjavik that had Castle of Gediminas (that exists in Vilnius, Lithuania) as its symbol.

Former bar Vilnius in Reykjavik

Before WW2 Iceland used to be a remote Danish fishing colony with little non-Scandinavian population. Even then though a Lithuanian citizen Teodoras Bieliackinas used to live in Iceland and write articles on the country for the 1930s Lithuanian press. This personality has been researched in a recently published book.

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Manchester, England

Manchester's Lithuanian history is one of the richest among the British cities, surpassed in importance only by that of London and the Glasgow area.

Being one of just a few Western European cities where all three main waves of Lithuanian waves arrived (pre-WW1, post-WW2, and post-1990), Manchester hosts numerous Lithuanian heritage sites, including a former Lithuanian club, a Lithuanian cemetery zone with Lithuanian monuments, and churches that served the Lithuanian community.

Lithuanian monuments at Moston Cemetery

Manchester’s Moston (St. Joseph’s) Cemetery includes two Lithuanian monuments, each of them marking an area where Lithuanians are buried together.

The first Lithuanian monument of Moston Cemetery is an art deco-inspired stele that includes an array of Lithuanian symbols, among them the Lithuanian coat of arms and the first line of Lithuanian anthem “Lietuva, Tėvyne mūsų”. The entire top of the monument is reminiscent of the Columns of Gediminas symbol, above which there is a cross. As written on the monument, it was built in 1951 commemorating the 7th centenary of Christianity in Lithuania and it is dedicated to Lithuanians resting nearby. There were 54 lots in total bought out by Lithuanians of Manchester.

Lithuanian Cemetery Zone monument in Manchester

After the first cemetery zone was reserved, Lithuanians acquired another one nearby, crowning it with a monument dedicated to Aušros Vartų Motina (Our Lady of the Gate of Down) and including a bas-relief copy of this famous painting in Vilnius. While the monument is smaller, there were more lots here (77). The first Lithuanians were buried here in 1978. This zone was established by the Lithuanian Catholic Society (Lietuvių katalikų bendrija) in Britain.

Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn Monument

Both monuments also list those buried there. However, as the monuments were built while these people were mostly still alive, significant numbers of them are not buried there, as they, like many UK Lithuanians, emigrated to the USA.

List of those buried here on the back of the Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn Monument

Despite there being two Lithuanian zones, they were not enough - other Lithuanians were buried further away in private lots, although many still sought to be as close to the monuments as possible.

A separate Lithuanian-themed gravestone not far away from the Lithuanian zones

The Lithuanians buried here were generally DPs – Lithuanians who fled the Soviet occupation in 1944. 3000 of them ended up in Great Britain ~1950 (with ~800 in the Manchester area). Being especially patriotic and seeing themselves as exiled people rather than emigrants, they tried their best to remain together even after their deaths.

Close-up of the first monument

Manchester Lithuanian Social Club

Manchester Lithuanian Social Club was the heart of the DP Lithuanian activities. A regular 1883-built house was acquired in 1948. The Club had 251 members in 1949 but by 1952 already declined to 171, likely due to the onward migration to the USA or Australia.

The club hosted a bar where Lithuanians would meet as well as other Lithuanian activities. It was renovated in 1987.

As elsewhere in Great Britain, however, the generation of the DP children rapidly drifted away from the Lithuanian activities. As the original refugees were passing away, the club was closed in 1997 and sold in 2014. While some of the recent Lithuanian immigrants at the time would have frequented the club, few did so and even fewer would volunteer for what was a voluntarism-based institution.

Currently, while the building still stands, there are no more Lithuanian signs, such as the large Lithuanian coat of arms that used to be located near the building.

Former Lithuanian Club of Manchester

It was this Club, together with the local chapter of the Lithuanian Community, that sponsored the first Lithuanian monument in the Moston cemetery.

Manchester Lithuanian Catholic community

Together with London and the Glasgow area, Manchester was one of the few places in Great Britain where Lithuanians lived even before World War 1, with the upper estimates reaching 1500. In Manchester, they sought to establish their own St. Casimir Church, which started as a chapel in 1904. However, they were doing this together with Poles; subsequent conflict between Lithuania and Poland “divorced” this parish, with the church first being awarded to Poles and closed ~1934. The church building was demolished afterward.

That first wave of Lithuanian immigrants in Manchester also had their own club but it operated in rented premises; some of them joined the DP Lithuanian Social Club (see above) once it was established.

The DPs were too few in numbers to build their own church, even though they had such plans. Eventually, though, they settled down in the St. Chad Church where they had a Lithuanian Sunday mass. There, in 1984, they put on a painting of Lithuania’s patron saint St. Casimir with a Lithuanian inscription and a plaque celebrating the quincentenary of his passing. This painting is still there, although the modern Lithuanian mass in Manchester is celebrated elsewhere.

Painting of the Lithuanian patron saint Casimir at the St. Chad Church

While Lithuanians in Manchester did not have their own chapel or church at the time, they had a separate organization – Lithuanian Catholic Society (Lietuvių katalikų bendrija). This organization was responsible for erecting the Our Lady of Gate of Dawn monument in Moston cemetery.

While there were too few Lithuanians to ever have a Lithuanian-majority district in Manchester, Barton area next to the swing aqueduct once housed considerable numbers of Lithuanians.

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Scotland

Scotland boasts one of the oldest Lithuanian communities in the West, initially attracted to its coal mines. Before World War 1, it was second only to the United States of America in the number of Lithuanian immigrants. That said, the difference was still huge, with more than 300,000 First Wave Lithuanians in the USA and just some 8550 Lithuanians in Scotland in year 1913.

Bellshill Lithuanians and their Scottish-Lithuanian Social Club

The majority of Lithuanians in Scotland lived in the area around Glasgow, especially in and around Bellshill, working in the coal mines and steel mills (7000 out of 8550 Scotland's Lithuanians in 1913 lived in this area). Lithuanians even had their own names for local towns, e.g. Bellshill would be Balselis and Mossend – Musėnai.

To this day, Bellshill has a Scottish Lithuanian Cultural, Recreational & Social Club, the only such secular Lithuanian club remaining in operation in the entire United Kingdom.

Scottish-Lithuanian Club in Bellshill

The club and its ethnically-themed bar are open most days of the week, attracting people of Lithuanian descent and other locals alike. Its halls include lots of Lithuanian memorabilia, including images of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, symbols of Lithuania, and more.

Club's bar

The club began its life as the Scottish Lithuanian Institute, acquiring its original premises nicknamed “The Shimie” in 1953. That building stood on the corner of Calder Road and Main Street. However, it was demolished in 1978 to widen the intersection. Having received compensation, Lithuanians of Bellshill built the current club building in 1979 (opened 1979 02 10), adopting the current name for their club. In 1983, the building was expanded further, with the new extension opening on August 13th that year.

Sign of the Scottish-Lithuanian Club

The institute and later club combined all the Lithuanian activities of the area, including the Lithuanian St. Cecilia choir, folk dance groups, etc. While the Scottish-Lithuanian Social Club included many original miners among its members, the initiative to establish the club came from a new wave of Lithuanian immigrants: the refugees (DPs) who fled the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1944. While fewer in numbers (some 400 in total), they saw themselves as exiles rather than emigrants as they wouldn’t have left had Lithuania remained free. As such, they sought to establish a “piece of Lithuania” in Scotland where they would feel at home. Lithuanians were helped by Mr. Bandoni, a local Italian businessman, who donated money for the club’s first building.

Lithuanian memorabilia in the office of the club

While the earlier wave of Lithuanian coal miners had their organizations (e.g. 1898-established St. Casimir Society), these organizations never owned any club or church buildings. Among the reasons for this may be the fact that the local Lithuanian community was hit hard by World War 1 when, in 1917, Scottish-Lithuanian men were given a choice by the British government to either fight for Britain or move back to Lithuania and fight for the hated Russia there. With Lithuania still ruled by the Russian Empire and Russia being an ally of Britain in World War 1, Britain did not see Lithuanians as a separate group; they were seen as Russians by the British government and regarded to be Polish by the neighbors and the press due to long years of Lithuanian language and culture being secondary in status to Polish back in Lithuania itself. So common was the lumping of Lithuanians and Poles together that it is now difficult to count the exact numbers of “true” Lithuanians, although it is believed that in the Bellshill area, there were few if any Poles, with most “Poles” thus having been Lithuanians. Due to discrimination against them because of their Catholic faith and foreign-sounding names, many Lithuanians changed names into English ones according to the "recommendations" of their employers or city authorities.

In 1917 many Lithuanian men were essentially deported to the same Russian Empire they had fled years or decades before; while the Russian Empire collapsed soon afterward and Lithuania became independent in 1918, even those who wanted to return to Scotland were often not allowed to, with their dependent families thus eventually having to leave Scotland as well ~1920. Among the reasons for not permitting the return of Lithuanians was the belief that, in the era of the Russian Civil War, many Lithuanians would have become communists. This was largely an alarmist way of thinking, as Lithuania itself was defending itself from the communist invasion in 1918-1920, although some Lithuanian communists, e.g. Vincas Kapsukas, did indeed live in Scotland at one time (V. Kapsukas later cooperated with the Soviet Russia in their failed war against the Republic of Lithuania; he served as the prime minister of the collaborative Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1919-1920).

Even those who continued to live in Scotland often had to leave their close-knit communities due to the mass demolition of historic tenements in cities like Glasgow.

One of the few surviving tenements in Glasgow where First-Wave Lithuanians lived

The Scottish-Lithuanian community was thus decimated in 1917-1920, only reinvigorated by the DPs in the 1950s many of whom chose these far-away mining towns to settle down precisely because of the existence of older Lithuanian communities.

As the generations changed, the Scottish-Lithuanian Social Club almost suffered the same fate as Britain’s other Lithuanian clubs, with some members deciding to take over, close down, and sell the club in the 2000s. Unlike in England, however, such a fate was precluded by other members, who successfully disputed it in a court case, continuing the club's operation.

As the decades passed, however, many regular Lithuanian activities ceased, with the club now mostly serving as a place to meet and have fun, albeit it still retains connections to its Lithuanian heritage.

The new hall of the Scottish-Lithuanian Club

The members are from the first and second waves of Lithuanian immigrants to Scotland and/or their Scottish-born children. While after 1990 and, especially, after 2004, a massive new community of Lithuanian immigrants developed in Scotland, they generally didn’t join the club. Among the reasons is the fact that few if any of them live around Bellshill, with Edinburgh becoming the modern-day center of Scottish-Lithuanians.

Lithuanian monuments at Carfin Grotto

A lasting legacy of Bellshill Lithuanian Social Club is the Lithuanian memorials at the Carfin Grotto, the largest such Lithuanian monument complex in Great Britain.

Carfin Grotto is a Christian-themed park, originally developed in the 1920s. It was built by hand by locals, many of them striking coal miners, including Lithuanians. While Lithuanian religious services were being held there in the 1920s already, ethnic monuments were not developed at the time and grew later. Currently, there are five ethnic shrines marked on the entrance plaque: Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Lebanese.

Map of the Carfin Grotto with the ethnic shrines marked

The Lithuanian shrine began as a Lithuanian traditional wooden cross (UNESCO-inscribed art form) erected in 1985, commemorating a anniversary of Lithuanian Catholic activity in Scotland. Built of oak, the cross was designed by Jonas Adomonis from Bradford. It is dedicated “To honour the memory of the late Mons. Joseph Gutauskas and other Lithuanian priests who served the Lithuanian community”. While Lithuanians never had their own church in Scotland, for a long time, there was a regular Lithuanian mass at Bellshill’s Holy Family Catholic Church at the opposite side of road from the Scottish-Lithuanian Social Club.

Lithuanian monuments at the Carfin Grotto in Scotland

In 1987-1988, the Carfin Grotto’s Lithuanian cross was joined by what is named as Scotland’s Lithuanian Community’s Shrine to Mother of God in English, however, the Lithuanian inscription describes it as being dedicated to the Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn in particular, with a copy of that miraculous painting of Virgin Mary, the original of which hangs in Vilnius, within the small chapel. Priest Andriušis collected some 2000 Pounds for this monument,

Dedication of the shrine

Dedication of the Lithuanian cross

Furthermore, a statue of St. Casimir, Lithuania’s most famous saint, was erected nearby.

The monument complex includes a Lithuanian flag, being the only place in Great Britain where a Lithuanian flag always flies.

One of the nearby benches is dedicated to deceased Lithuanians with the words “Amžiną atilsį” (“Rest in peace”).

Other sites

Scottish-Lithuanian history is researched in several books. There is a collection of Lithuanian-related documents in the South Lanarkshire Heritage Center.

Lithuanian archival documents at the South Lanarkshire Heritage Center

There is also a Baltic Street in Glasgow. While its no-longer-existing tenements once housed many Lithuanians, the street name actually predates them and is of unrelated origin.

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Bradford, England

The textile mill city of Bradford developed as possibly the largest hub of Lithuanian DPs in Britain, with some 1000 of them living here in the early 1950s after having fled Lithuania due to the Soviet occupation and genocide there. In Britain, they first had to live and work at pre-determined locations but then were allowed to freely move, many of them choosing Bradford.

Former textile mills on the Bradford skyline

Bradford Lithuanian Club “Vytis”

The hub of their activities was Lithuanian Club “Vytis” located at 5 Oak Villas. Opened in 1956 as Yorkshire Lithuanian Club, it was renamed „Vytis“ in 1958 after the Lithuanian coat of arms.

The building acquired for the club was a regular house. Then it was transformed to include a hall and a Lithuanian canteen. There was also a Lithuanian language school teaching the DP kids. However, the activities slowly dwindled, with the school having 57 kids in 1957, 23 kids in 1960, and closed for good in 1967.

The building of Lithuanian Club "Vytis"

The reasons for this were faster-than-elsewhere assimilation where discrimination often caused the children to disassociate themselves from their Lithuanian roots despite their parents’ wishes, as well as massive further emigration into the USA, where more than half of Bradford Lithuanians left by some 1960.

Bradford Lithuanian Club was closed and sold ~2002, essentially having served only a single generation of Lithuanians. By that time, there was already a new wave of immigration from Lithuania but the patriotic DPs and the new economic migrants often lacked common ground, with the DPs feeling used by the new immigrants. Currently, the house is used as a family home again.

A book of the now-closed Bradford Lithuanian Club

Bradford Captive Nations Plaque

Campaigning for the freedom of Soviet-occupied Lithuania was a major activity of Lithuanian DPs. They sought to remind regular British people of the plight of Lithuania so they would not forget the Soviet occupation there.

In Bradford, Lithuanians joined their hands with Ukrainians, Latvians, Estonians, Hungarians, and Belarusians of similar fate to unveil a Freedom for Nations plaque in the XV century Cathedral of Bradford. Consisting of all the country flags, the plaque was unveiled by local and Eastern European clergy alike and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations and the 20th anniversary of the Captive Nations Committee, two of the Central and Eastern European refugee organizations that campaigned for the end of communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe (as the plaque says, “whose countries are denied their freedom”).

Bradford Cathedral where the plaque is located at

Captive Nations Plaque in the Bradford Cathedral

Lithuanian graves in Bradford

Unlike in London, Nottingham, or Manchester, Lithuanians don’t have their own zone in any Bradford cemetery but many of them are buried in the Bowling Cemetery. Lithuanian DP gravestones often incorporate patriotic motifs with quotes like “Ilsėkis ramybėje toli nuo Tėvynės” (“Rest in peace far from homeland”), “In memory of a Lithuanian – tu jį nors atmint ar atminsi kada, tu – jo numylėta Tėvynė” (“Will you at least remember him some time, his beloved Homeland?”), “Išklydome klaikiais tremties keliais ir tik pas Viešpatį Dievą vėl busime kartu” (“We left in horrible paths of exile and only at the God Almighty we will be together”). Despite some of them spending the majority of their lives in Britain, Lithuania remained the homeland for them, unlike for their children's generation.

A second-wave Lithuanian grave in Bradford with a Lithuanian tricolor put around it by the third-wave caretakers

Lithuanian tree in Leeds

Rather few recent Lithuanian immigrants chose Bradford, however, much more of them live in nearby Leeds, which now became a center for Lithuanian activities in this part of England. Lacking their own clubhouse, Lithuanians now rent premises from the Leeds Ukrainian Club for their Saturday school and activities. Not far away from that club in Potternewton Park, Leeds Lithuanians planted a tree to commemorate 100 years of restored Lithuania (1918-2018). The tree is marked by a small plaque where the reason of its planting is explained.

Leeds Lithuanian community near the tree they planted

Plaque at the tree. Photo by Ruta Kisio.

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Nottingham, England

Nottingham has one of the most important Lithuanian hubs in Great Britain known as “Židinys” (literally “Fireplace” but also meaning “Hub”).

In 1966, “Židinys” was established in an acquired ~1830s townhouse by the Lithuanian Marian priests. At the time, it was known as “Jaunimo židinys” (Youth Hub) as the upper floors served as a dormitory for Lithuanian students and orphans. Studying in Nottingham, they would have Lithuanian religious services in Židinys’s first-floor chapel as well as additional Lithuanian language lessons on Sundays.

Lithuanian Center "Židinys" in Nottingham

“Židinys” chapel is dedicated to the Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn. Located on the first floor, it includes many Lithuanian symbols and mementos. Many of the building elements pre-date its Lithuanian ownership, with the chapel itself once being a regular room. However, Lithuanians installed stained-glass windows on the second floor. An older wooden plaque outside includes a Lithuanian coat of arms, flag, and the inscription “Lietuvių židinys / Lithuanian Centre / Marian Fathers”.

"Židinys" chapel

In “Židinys”, Lithuanian priests also lived, led by priest Steponas Matulis. From here, they served 13 smaller Lithuanian colonies. They also published “Šaltinis”, a Lithuanian magazine that had its origins in Seinai (Sejny) at 1906, a rebirth in 1926 Marijampolė (a city that is a hub of Marian priests in Lithuania). Closed by the Soviets in 1940, it was reborn in London in 1961 and moved to “Židinys” later, having a circulation of 1200. As the Soviet occupation of Lithuania ended, “Šaltinis” was transferred back to Lithuania in 1993.

"Židinys" original sign

After priest Steponas Matulis died, a larger plaque was unveiled on “Židinys”, saying that it was founded by Rev Steponas Matulis (1918-2003) and the first Mass was served on 1965 09 08. After priest Matulis’s death, no Lithuanian priest lived in “Židinys”, however, the chapel still hosts a regular monthly Lithuanian Mass celebrated by Lithuanian priests from London St. Casimir Lithuanian Parish. Currently, secular/ethnic Lithuanian activities dominate in “Židinys”, including the celebrations for Lithuanian Independence Day, a singing of the Lithuanian anthem on July 6th, and the Lithuanian “Poetry Spring”.

Plaque for the founder of "Židinys"

The Lithuanian community of Nottingham generally consisted of the DPs – Lithuanians who fled the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1944. The Marian priests who founded “Židinys” also were DPs, forced to flee by the Soviet atheist regime.

"Židinys" chapel altar

While Nottingham was one of the largest DP “colonies” in Great Britain (together with Bradford, Glasgow area, Manchester, and London), unlike the other ones, it lacked a 1950s Lithuanian club, with plans to acquire such premises never being realized. This likely influenced the Lithuanian priest's decision to select Nottingham for “Židinys”, where it could also double as a local hub for Lithuanian activities, filling an important hole.

“Židinys” is also one of the very few Lithuanian clubs in the United Kingdom that was established by the DPs and then taken over by the post-1990s immigrants, who continue its legacy. Comparable Lithuanian clubs in Manchester, Bradford, Headley, and London have closed down ~2000-2010 instead as the DP generation was passing away.

Lithuanian Cemetery Zone of Nottingham

As the DP Nottingham Lithuanians began passing away, they acquired a large lot in Wilford Hill Cemetery in 1971 so they could be buried together. This lot doesn’t have general Lithuanian monuments, unlike similar lots in Manchester or London, but it has many Lithuanian gravestones with patriotic and exile-themed symbols and inscriptions – e.g. “Lithuanian. Ilsėkis ramybėje toli nuo savo tėviškės” (“Rest in peace far from your homeland”), “Misunderstood you did your best in a new strange alien land”.

Grave in the Lithuanian cemetery zone of Nottingham

The founder of “Židinys” priest Steponas Matulis is also buried here.

Grave in the Lithuanian cemetery zone of Nottingham

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Bardi, Italy

In terms of Lithuanian heritage, a small Italian town Bardi (population 2300) ranks second only to Rome.

It is even more interesting knowing that Bardi never had a Lithuanian community. The Bardi Lithuanian sites have their roots in just two people, one of them a Lithuanian who never lived in Bardi and another one a non-Lithuanian who was born in Bardi but didn’t live there either.

The Lithuanian was Vincas Mincevičius, a Lithuanian priest who had to remain in Italy after Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union; he was instrumental in establishing Italy’s Lithuanian community and many Lithuanian sites. The non-Lithuanian was Cardinal Antonius Samore, a Bardi native after whom a local street is named; before World War 2, he used to work in the Vatican’s nunciature (embassy) to Lithuania, becoming fond of the country; after World War 2, he employed Mincevičius, and the duo went on to transform Samore’s native Bardi with Lithuanian artworks.

Sala Lituania of Bardi

Their magnum opus is Sala Lituania which has few pars anywhere in Europe. It is an entire hall dedicated to Lithuanian murals and artworks, located in a local parish building (Youth House) that dates to 1963. In reality, the Lithuanian artworks go far beyond that hall itself, adorning the corridors and stairwell, everything there reminding of Lithuania, whether created by famous Lithuanian diaspora artists or Italian artists who were also commissioned for this.

Sala Lituania in Bardi

Within the Hall (Sala) itself, there is a huge mural with a map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and various visions and symbols of its medieval glory (Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Next to it, another mural depicts Lithuanians around a cross. There are multiple Lithuanian flags, as well as Italian and Vatican flags in the hall. The furniture evokes of traditional Lithuanian woodwork.

Sala Lituania mural in Bardi

Over the entrance of the hall there is an image of an angel holding a Lithuanian coat of arms with altered first words of the Lithuanian anthem “Lietuva, Tėvynė mūsų” inscribed (“Lithuania, our homeland”). The handles of the hall’s door depict the Vilnius coat of arms and the European Basketball Championship that took place in Kaunas in 1939 (the second final year of free Lithuania).

Sign at the entrance to Sala Lituania

At the side of the hall, there is a Lithuanian chapel of Our Lady of Vilnius, donated by Monsignor Juozas Tadarauskas. This chapel includes an image of Our Lady of Vilnius, a bas-relief of Rūpintojėlis (donated by Bad Worishofen St. Ulrich parish that was led by Lithuanian priests), and a stained-glass window that depicts major sites of Vilnius and St. Casimir (author Dilvo Lotti, donated by family of White-Vaitkevičius). This shows that Sala Lituania was made possible by many Lithuanians from all over the world.

Chapel near Sala Lituania

The stairwell of the building includes a large mural of the baptism of king Mindaugas. It is said that the bishop who baptizes Mindaugas looks like Samore while the priest who stands behind him is Mincevičius.

Baptism of Mindaugas mural

At the entrance of the building a commemorative plaque for Vincas Mincevičius in 2022, listing him as an honorary citizen of Bardi and a patriot of free Lithuania, as well as a plaque for Samore.

Door handles of Sala Lituania showing the 1939 European basketball championship in Kaunas

Lithuanian street and monuments in Bardi

In addition to Sala Lituania, Mincevičius-Samore tandem created more Lithuanian sites. One of the streets of Bardi has been renamed Via Lituania.

Lituania street in Bardi

Furthermore, on the eastern entrance to the town, a Lithuanian chapel-post was ordered by Mincevičius in 1962, dedicated to Samore and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the beginning of his tenure in Lithuania (the chapel-post was created by an Italian artist Adolfo Valazza). This chapel-post has since crumbled but it was replaced in 2002 by a monument to itself – a small wooden Lithuanian chapel-post model is now housed within a stone chapel. A plaque inside says that it is a Lithuanian cross, a copy of the original by Giovanni Assirati.

A miniature copy of the original chapel-post inside a monument to that chapel-post

Meanwhile, honoring the Lithuanian cultural traditions of Bardi, the modern-day Lithuanian immigrants to Italy have built a new Lithuanian chapel-post close to the building where Sala Lituania is located in. This chapel-post, created by V. Ulevičius in 2007, is dedicated to both Mincevičius and Samore, and includes Lithuanian symbols on its sides: the columns of Gediminas, the cross of Vytis, and a stylized Lithuanian coat of arms that is popular within the Lithuanian diaspora. It is crowned by a Lithuanian sun-cross. The plaque reads “ILB dovanoja šį koplytstulpį Bardžio miesteliui, kaip tikėjimo ir broliškos vienybės simbolį” (“Lithuanian-Italian Community gifts this chapel-post to the town of Bardi as a symbol of faith and fraternal unity”).

The modern chapel-post of Bardi

While no Lithuanians live in Bardi today, the Lithuanian sites created here attract many visitors, and Lithuanians who live in other Italian cities even had their own events within the Sala Lithuania.

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Denmark

The small town of Thisted in northern Denmark is home to Europe’s most famous Lithuanian DP camp memorial.

DPs (displaced persons) were Lithuanians who had to flee their own country in 1944 as the Soviet armies were approaching, bringing their genocide with them. Almost 100000 Lithuanians fled westwards trying to stay in front of the frontlines and ending up in the Western-democracy-ruled sections of Europe. While most of them (some 65000) found peace in French-, American-, or British- occupational zones of Germany, Denmark became a distant second country in Europe in the number of Lithuanian DPs, with some 3000 ending up there as the war ended.

As elsewhere, the DPs would be put to live in DP camps. In these camps, their freedom may have been limited, however, at the same time, the camps were effectively close-knit Lithuanian villages or towns within foreign countries, allowing Lithuanians to establish their institutions and build their memorials.

Lithuanian DP camp memorial in Thisted

One of Denmark’s key Lithuanian-majority DP camps was located in Dragsbæk near Thisted, using what was a Nazi German seaplane base. Some 750 Lithuanians lived there. In 1947, Lithuanians erected their memorial, consisting of a traditional Lithuanian cross, a Column of Gediminas monument with the face of a Lithuanian soldier on it, and numerous Cross of Vytis symbols, as well as a Vytis sign built on the ground out of pebbles. The inscription on the columns of Gediminas reads “Mūsų troškimas – Tėvynės laisvė” (Our strive is the freedom of our homeland). The author of the cross was Jablonskis, and a local Knud Hansen painted it. The monument was erected in secret.

Columns of Gediminas at the Thisted Lithuanian monument

The Lithuanian DP community in Denmark was extremely brief. As of 1949, with the freedom of Lithuania seemingly a lost cause, nearly all of them relocated to other countries, e.g. Australia, USA, or Canada. Lithuanians feared to stay in Denmark, believing that its governments could give them out to the Soviets, where they would have faced death or persecution.

However, some 500 other Lithuanians listened to the Soviet propaganda and returned to Lithuania. Often these were Lithuanians from Klaipėda Region, who never experienced the 1939-1940 first Soviet occupation as their region was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939. Klaipėda Lithuanians made a disproportionate number of DPs in Denmark as many of them, due to being regarded as German citizens, were evacuated by Germany across the Baltic sea into what was then still a Nazi-occupied Denmark.

Lithuanian cross and Vytis at the Thisted Lithuanian monument

Yet, against all odds, even without Lithuanians living anymore in the surrounding area, the Lithuanian monument survived and was even reconstructed. In 1950, the DP camp was taken over by the Danish military – emergency services department in particular. To the new owners, its Lithuanian monument became a symbol of their base. They repaired the cross in 1957 and 1990, rebuilding it completely based on the original design in 2015. They also replaced the pebble Vytis with a more permanent brick one (designed by Danish sculptor Henning Wienber Jensen). A plaque explaining the monument's history has been built.

While located in a military territory, the monument is allowed to be visited by outsiders. They should report at the entrance building first, to be escorted to the monument by the servicemen.

Other Lithuanian sites in Denmark

Originally, there was also another similar Columns of Gediminas DP camp monument located in a DP camp at Nymindegab in western Denmark. That monument, with an inscription “Laisvai gyvenę, vergais nebūsim” (“After having lived free, we will not be slaves”), was destroyed, however. Nymindegab Camp served as the precursor to the Dragsbæk (Thisted) Camp. Lithuanian DPs were located in 1945-1946 in Nymindegab and relocated to Dragsbæk in the autumn of 1946.

Besides the DPs, Denmark never had a historical significant Lithuanian community, and the current Lithuanian community is mostly formed by recent immigrants. The largest group are the blue-collar workers as, for blue collar jobs, the salaries in Denmark are significantly higher than those in Lithuania. Another group consists of Lithuanians who came to Denmark for studies which became free for Lithuanians in the 2000s when Lithuania had joined the European Union. Many of these Lithuanians continued to live in Denmark after their studies.

Still, Danish capital Copenhagen has a street named after Lithuania (Litauen Alle) in its vicinity (Taastrup suburb), albeit in a row of similar Latvia and Estonia streets in an industrial district. There is also a Lithuanian Square in Copenhagen itself (Litauens Plads), also surrounded by streets named after Estonia and Latvia.

A street named after Lithuania near Copenhagen

Copenhagen’s artist “district-republic” of Christiania has inspired Lithuania’s “Republic of Užupis” micronation, something reminded by a plaque in Christiania with the inscription “REPUBLIC OF UZHUPIS 1099-1111 KM".

Republic of Uzhupis sign in Christiania

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Finland

The famous Hietaniemi cemetery of Helsinki has one prominent Lithuanian-looking grave, marked by a sculpture of traditional Rūpintojėlis (sad Jesus) and a Lithuanian inscription.

Interestingly, the person buried there was not a Lithuanian but rather a Finnish professor Aukusti Robert Niemi who lived in 1869-1931, together with his wife.

Aukusti Robert Niemi grave in Finland

His gravestone was built by Lithuanians in gratitude for Niemi's work in researching Lithuanian folklore. Before World War 1, when both Lithuania and Finland were ruled by the Russian Empire, Niemi visited Lithuania in order to write down its folk songs, writing down some 3000 of them. His Finnish works were even later translated back into Lithuanian and contributed to the researches there. At the time Lithuanian culture was greatly discriminated by the Russian Empire and it was uncommon for foreigners to do such extensive fieldwork in Lithuania itself.

The author of the Rūpintojėlis is a famous Lithuanian sculptor Bronius Pundzius; the gravestone was erected in 1933.

The location of Aukusti Robert Niemi grave in Hietaniemi cemetery

The inscription on the grave - available in both Lithuanian and Finnish - thus reads "To its dear friend - the Lithuanian nation".

As the sole truly Lithuanian heritage site / permanent artwork in Finland, Niemi's grave figures in the Lithuanian festivities in Finland.

The grave is at 60.171887, 24.908989.

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Pre-WW1 Lithuanian heritage in Britain (first wave)

1950s-1970s Lithuanian heritage in Britain (second wave DPs)

Modern-day Lithuanian migration to Britain (the Third Wave)

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St. Casimir Lithuanian Church

Lithuanian Houses of London and the DP community

Headley Park “Sodyba”

London Lithuanian Cemetery zone

Lithuanian Embassy

Lithuanian Christian Church of London

Beckton area

Perkūnas the pole

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Massive Lithuanian sites in Rome

Traces of Lithuania beyond Rome

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Lithuanian Chapel in the Vatican

Other Lithuanian sites in the Vatican

Lithuanian Pontifical College of St. Casimir

Lithuanian funerary chapel at Verano Cemetery

Lithuanian marks at the famous places of Rome

Villa Lituania, “the final occupied territory of Lithuania”

Piazza Lituania

Lithuanian heritage beyond Rome

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Mini-Europe theme park in Brussels

Traces of Lithuania at the EU institutions in Brussels

Lithuanian diplomatic missions in Brussels

Lithuanian crosses in Duffel

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Lithuanian DP camps in Germany

Augsburg DP camp

Flossenbürg Concentration Camp

Lithuanian Memorials in Detmold and Wehnen

February 16th Lithuanian Private High School (castle)

Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian palace in Haus Annaberg

Lithuanian Plaza and Chapel in Bad Wörishofen

Saxon mile-posts with Lithuanian symbols

Lithuanian pre-WW1 migrant heritage

”Lithuanian” monuments in Berlin

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Lithuanian France - what is it?

Where to find Lithuanian heritage sites in France?

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Commemorative plaques for Lithuanian arists

Sites of Switzerland related to the rebirth of Lithuania

Lithuanian DPs and politicians in Switzerland

Lithuanian symbols from the 19th century

Other Lithuanian-Swiss relations

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Lithuanian coat of arms in top Paris sites

The Great Migration’s Lithuanian bas-reliefs

Lithuanian Embassy in Paris

Fontainebleau and Oskaras Milašius

Displaced persons and famous Lithuanian burials

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Lithuanian monuments at Moston Cemetery

Manchester Lithuanian Social Club

Manchester Lithuanian Catholic community

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Bellshill Lithuanians and their Scottish-Lithuanian Social Club

Lithuanian monuments at Carfin Grotto

Other sites

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Bradford Lithuanian Club “Vytis”

Bradford Captive Nations Plaque

Lithuanian graves in Bradford

Lithuanian tree in Leeds

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Lithuanian Cemetery Zone of Nottingham

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Sala Lituania of Bardi

Lithuanian street and monuments in Bardi

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Lithuanian DP camp memorial in Thisted