The Government of the Republic of Lithuania Palace

Authors

About

The Palace of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania is an example of late modernist architecture, with postmodernist manifestations.
The relatively modest four-building complex with an inner rectangular courtyard blends organically into its surroundings. This building is one of the most important and interesting works of the famous Lithuanian architect Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas, which the author sought to harmonise with the surrounding buildings by means of an expression of the time.
To this day, questions remain as to how the architect managed to convince the government of the time with such a contextual project that did not stand out from its surroundings, as it was customary in the Soviet Union for the buildings of the Central Committee to be given a distinctly dominant form in their surroundings in order to emphasize their political significance. The building’s architecture, which did not stand out too much from the old Vilnius city environment, was justified by Čekanauskas in Moscow only by using the ideologically difficult to resist argument that “the building of the Central Committee must be as modest as Lenin himself”.
Built more than three decades ago, the interiors of the complex are authentic, reflecting the prevailing styles of the time, with unique works of art adapted to them, and are still used by key political figures today.