A Different Part of Town..

Thursday, I decided to go to the other part of town and check out the big white church we could see at the top of the hill from our hotel the Basilica of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Setting off down the Laisvės Alėja I then turned right at the fountain and headed to the Vytautas Magnus War Museum. Just to the left of the Museum is a garden that contains the Monument to the Fallen for Lithuania’s Freedom (Žuvusiems už Lietuvos laisvę, 1921), in its immediate surroundings, there is the Altar with the Eternal Flame in front of the Monument, the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in between them (Nežinomo Kareivio Kapas), and the busts of Povilas Lukšys and Antanas Juozapavičius – respectively, the first soldier and the first officer killed in the Wars of Independence in February 1919 – on the both sides of the Monument to the Fallen. Additionally, behind the monument are we wooden crosses and praying poles. In 1921-1922, four crosses, two poles with rooftops (“stogastulpis” in Lithuanian) and one praying pole (“koplystulpis” in Lithuanian) were placed on both sides of the Monument. The decorative crosses are part of Lithuanian tradition and today they are recognized by UNESCO and put on their Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Crosses are made of oak wood and richly decorated, also with pagan symbols.
Continuing on and following the signs for the Basilica I arrived at and took the; Žaliakalnis Funicular, built in 1931, and one of the oldest funiculars still in operation in the world, up the hill.Read more