Alytus in Lithuania

Alytus townhall and square

Alytus in Lithuania

Considered the capital of Dzukija, this city straddling the river the Nemunas is the largest urban centre in the south of Lithuania and the sixth largest in the entire country. Its origins are linked to the large fortress hill on the right bank of the Nemunas where it joins the Alytupis, source of the city’s name. The hill offers a panorama of the city districts, festival site Dainu slenis (Valley of Songs) and adjacent remains of a railway bridge on the other side of the Nemunas, and a recreation area deep in the pine forests beyond them. A fitness path follows a 19th century rail causeway and connects two ends of the city.

History of Alytus

Alytus is mentioned in written sources in the 14th century; at that time the fortress on the hill was an important link in the defence system along the Nemunas River. The settlement began to expand in a northwesterly direction, away from the fortress, once it lost its status and deteriorated after the 1422 Mölln Peace Treaty. Alytus acquired city rights from King Stephen Batory of Lithuania and Poland in 1581.

The Third Partition of Lithuania-Poland in 1795 partitioned the city as well: the area on the right bank of the Nemunas went to Russia, on the left to Prussia.The later was also subsequently allocated to the domains of the tsar by the 1815 Congress of Vienna following the defeat of Napoleon.

Alytus was militarised at the end of the 19th century: approximately 4,000 soldiers were stationed in new army barracks and the city was encircled by defence fortifications. It also acquired the Vilnius-Suwalki railway line, a train station, and two bridges across the Nemunas. The tsar’s militairy constructions were later used by the Lithuanian army, which first formed in Alytus. The city’s rol in the struggle for indepenence was marked by the death of Antanas Juozapavicius in the February 13,1919 battle against the bolsheviks; the first Lithuanian officer to give up his life in the independence struggle, Juozapavicius was killed on the Nemunas bridge on his 25th birthday. A new reinforced concrete bridge (1937) was named in his honour and the railings were decorated with a bas-relief (sculpure by Juozas Zikaras) depicting the battle; the embellishments were destroyed during the Soviet period and recreated at the end of the 20th century.

Alytus became a district an county centre during the interwar years. In 1928 it acquired a park with an Angel of Freedom monument (by Antanas Aleksandravicius) which was struck by lightning an restored by the author in 1934, razed to the ground by the Soviets in 1952, and rebuild in 1991.

Alytus had no prominent industrial sector in the inter-war period, and was granted resort status in 1932. A memorial with a sculpture depicting a broken Star of David (1993, by Aloyzas Smilingis) marks the mass killing site of 60,000 Jews who were exterminated in the nearby Vidzgiris Forest at the onset of the Second World War. The centre of Alytus was destroyed during the first ays of the war, and the post office, railway station and Antanas Juozapavicius Bridge were bombed in 1944.

Dainava district partisans, led by anti-Soviet resistance fighter Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, were very active in the Alytus district in the post-war period; his bust can be found at he local secondary school (Birutes gatve 2) which is named in his honour. A memorial to the Dainava unit in the cemetery on Daugu gatve symbolizes 490 partisans eternally at rest.

During the Soviet period huge apartment blocks and factories producing textiles, refrigerators, etc replaced the old way of life. A Youth Park with several metal works of art appeared on the edge of the city between the new Dainava and Putinai residential districts in the 1980′s and a distinctive sculpture entitled The Ring by the modernist Teodoras Valaitis surfaced on Naujoji gatve in 1985.

Alytus was known as the home of the children’s poet Anzelmas Matutis (Museum at A. Matucio gatve 8), writers Antanas Jonynas (museum at Liskiavos gatve 17) and Jurgis Kuncinas (honourary citizen with a library named in his honour), photographer Vytautas Stanionis, and other prominent Lithuanian figures.

The wooden church of the Guardian Angels (1905, Savanoriu gatve 14) has an 18th century painting called The Holy Family and several works of art from the 19th century. Buried in the adjacent cemetery are the remains of 114 volunteers who fought for Lithuania’s independence, including Antanas Juozapavicius, whose tombstone was created by soldiers out of bullets and gun parts.