The Memorial Complex of the Tuskulėnai Peace Park – The Columbarium

The hill in Tuskulėnai Peace Park is a modern echo of the city’s Baltic burial mounds. It commemorates the tragic history of 20th-century Lithuania and hides a unique space: a chapel-columbarium.

The area where Tuskulėnai Peace Park is located has been known since the 16th century as the land of the royal manor, while Tuskulėnai Manor, built at the beginning of the 19th century, was considered to be an important centre of cultural life. During the Soviet era, the manor was nationalised and closely guarded. The crimes of the repressive state apparatus were hidden here, and victims of Soviet terror were buried here in 1944–1947.

Later, a memorial complex was set up to commemorate the victims of terror. The main highlight is the burial mound – a buried volume, symbolically reflecting the purpose of the project. It houses a chapel-columbarium. The façade of the burial mound, which is marked by doubled crosses, faces the river and is topped by the metal sculpture Crown of Suffering. The chapel itself is a space of extraordinary sacredness, adorned with the 30 m2 vaulted mosaic Trinity by Gitenis Umbrasas, symbolising freedom, destiny and happiness.

The chapel-columbarium in Tuskulėnai Peace Park is an architecturally and functionally unique type of building in Lithuania, reflecting both a memorial and a place of eternal rest.