Prague Journal

Tuesday, May 24, 2005.

We began our day with a trip to Rumšiškes, an open-air museum located 18 km east of Kaunas between the Kaunas-Vilnius highway and the Kaunas Basin. This museum was established in 1966 to portray a typical Lithuanian country village. There are buildings, furniture, household articles, iconography materials, fences, wells, beehives, orchards, flower gardens and other artifacts, which illustrate the way of life, work and traditions of the peasants and townspeople of these regions. The core of the museum consists of dwelling houses and economic buildings transferred from different regions of Lithuania: Aukstaitija (Upper Lithuania), Suvalkija, Zemaitija (Lower Lithuania or Samogitia), Lithuania Minor. The buildings are grouped in complexes: farmsteads, small villages, and towns. They represent the most characteristic stylistic features, planning, constructions, and decorative elements of buildings of different epochs and social strata, set in the natural environment, complete with fences, green plantation, and sacral monuments. There are 51 buildings that one can go inside and see period furniture, clothing, kitchen articles, and working tools. In some buildings there are artisans demonstrating work such as making pots of clay, processing of the amber, wood, metal, weaving etc. The walk around the 7-km path took us about two hours, by which time the weather had turned from grey and cool to sunny and quite warm.
We returned our rental car and spent the afternoon in Kaunas’s Old Town. Kaunas has a population of nearly 400,000, over 35,000 of whom are students studying at one of seven universities, and is now a large center of business and industry. Kaunas is also a city of old traditions, and an important historical and cultural center. In 1408, Magdeburg rights were granted to the city of Kaunas by the privilege of Vytautas the Great. During the early 20th century, governed by its first Burgomaster Jonas Vileisis, Kaunas was the home of the Lithuanian Government and the capital city; a period considered by many as the golden age of the city. However, the city, situated at the confluence of the rivers Neris and Nemunas, experienced many other periods of great prosperity and national importance. In 1030, Lithuanian Prince Koinos established a fortress at the confluence of the Viliya and Nieman Rivers and named it Kovno after himself.
In 1410, the first Jews were brought in as prisoners of war and settled across the Nieman in Vilijampole, which was then called Slobodka. In the fifteenth century, Jewish traders temporarily resided in Kovno, but from 1495 to 1525 pressure from Christian merchants forced them into Slobodka. They weren’t allowed to return to Kovno until 1782. The Slobodka Yeshiva was founded in 1882 and by the end of the nineteenth century there were more than 25,000 Jews living under the czar. In 1915 as the German Army approached, czarist authorities expelled about 32,000 to the interior of Russia. Only 9,000 returned. Germany occupied Kovno for three years, and when an independent Lithuania was established in 1919, Kovno became Kaunas. When Poland annexed Vilnius in 1920, Kaunas became the capital.
By 1933 there were 38,000 Jews, nearly 30 percent of the total population, with five daily Yiddish newspapers. There were Hebrew and Yiddish schools, numerous synagogues and Zionist youth groups. Jews held positions in medicine and in commerce, a few were judges, but opportunities in government were limited. Soviet rule began in June 1940; Jewish institutions were shut down and many Jewish leaders and Zionist activists were exiled to Siberia. In June 1941 the Nazis took over and by July an estimated 10,000 Jews were murdered. That month, the Germans reestablished the ghetto in Slobodka. The Jews in the ghetto operated a Resistance underground, holding clandestine religious sessions and secretly documenting their tragedy through letters, art and photography. In 1945 the Soviets again entered the city. The repressive Russian rule lasted until Lithuania regained its independence, at which time most of the remaining Jews emigrated to Israel.
Most of our day in Kaunas was spent walking around Old Town. Old Town’s main street was now empty of the craft booths we had seen on Saturday. Many of the stores that line the street sell shoes – more shoe stores that we’ve ever seen in one city, let alone on one street!
We walked through town, toward the end of Vilniaus Street, toward Kaunas Castle. This 13th century castle was thought to have been built by Kęstutis to defend a road to Trakai. It was the country’s first defensive bastion and the only double-walled castle in Lithuania. The surrounding walls were initially over two meters wide and 13 meters high. Unlike most other castles of the time, Kaunas was not made by wood, but was one of the few stone castles. However, in 1362, after a siege, the crusaders managed to destroy it. Legend has it that the castle was not destroyed and that 36 survivors remained. These survivors along with the knights allegedly are still burning in an eternal fire which can only be extinguished by an innocent person entering the castle via a secret cave. However, history books dictate that the castle was destroyed and its replacement, some of which can be viewed at this site today, was built by 1368.
Most of the museums are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we walked back toward the center of Old Town. We stopped at Christ’s Resurrection Church, two Orthodox cathedrals, and the Town Hall, a baroque-style building with early classic and gothic architecture which looked like it had once been a church. The inside was splendid, obviously recently refurbished and modernized for civic offices.
We also stopped at Perkunas House, another example of late Gothic architecture, built in a similar style to St. Anne’s church in Vilnius. Built during the final days of the 15th century, the rich architecture symbolized the economic power of the Hanseatic League and German expansion. Today it is in a sad state of disrepair, but does host regular art classes. The St. Francis Church and Jesuit Monastery is also in disrepair, but we were able to go inside to see the library. The building dates from 1666, but fire has taken its toll over the centuries. Like many churches in Lithuania this one has changed hands many times, and was restored to its original owners once again in 1990.
The most predominant church is St. Michael the Archangel, which apparently still functions for services on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Today we could only see the outside of the building, which looks like a Russian Orthodox cathedral rather than a Catholic church. It is referred to as soboras, or a Lithuanization of the Russian word sobor or cathedral. The neo-Byzantine, symmetrical building was built towards the end of the 19th century by Russian architects.
The Vytautas Church is a gothic structure, built by Franciscan monks in the beginning of the 15th century with a tower that was added later that century. Invaders took advantage of the central location and the building was used as ammunitions storage by the Napoleonic army (who set the building ablaze in farewell) and later as an Orthodox cathedral from 1845-1853. The church was returned to the Catholics in 1990.
Our last stop of the day was the Kaunas Choral Synagogue, built in 1871. We arrived around 5:30, before the daily service. The synagogue’s silver dome and stained-glass windows glisten in the late afternoon sun. The inside of this synagogue is quite spectacular, with a marvelously ornate gold-leafed altar, overhung by an intricately designed golden chandelier. Two men inside explained that there is a minion every evening, with about 20 men. On warm evenings, elderly men and women sit on benches outside and schmooze in Russian or Yiddish before services. In the back courtyard there is a towering monument, a somber memorial to the more than 1,600 children who were murdered at the Ninth Fort.
The car-rental agency was kind enough to give us a ride back to Vicki’s flat, although the kindness was nearly made up for by the harrowing trip through rush-hour traffic, with several near-missed accidents. We went back to Old Town later that evening, for a last dinner at “Bernelių užeiga,” a traditional Lithuanian restaurant whose name is loosely translated as “The Boys’ Meeting House.” We made sure to sample the ethnic dishes, including the sweet bread ale.

posted by JWinn @ 9:44 PM