Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

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 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