Welcome to Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas
memorial apartment-museum

Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893–1967) – famous poet, playwright, prosaist, translator, professor of literature science, one of the most celebrated Lithuanian writers of the XXth century. V. Mykolaitis-Putinas and his wife moved from Kaunas to Vilnius in 1940. The apartment (Tauro str. 10) in which writer lived from 1947 to 1967 replicates his life. Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas memorial apartment-museum opened its door for visitors in 1986. Today the museum has about 5 000 exhibits accumulated. In three memorial rooms (the study, the parlor and the sleeping-room) the authentic atmosphere is restored.
The collection is made of authentic things of V. Mykolaitis-Putinas – furniture, books, pictures, as well as various materials associated with the writer’s creation, life and personality. The biographies of the family members and the authentic impressions of everyday family life fill the flat with their spirit to this day and allow visitors to experience V. Mykolaitis-Putinas anew.
Another famous Lithuanian novelist, poet, playwright, and literary critic Balys Sruoga has been living at the same flat till 1947. Best known for a novel entitled The Forest of Gods based on his time spent in a Nazi concentration camp. From 2017 there is a room-exhibition for Balys Sruoga and his family.
Today the museum presents up to five temporary exhibitions per year, organizes cultural events, educational programs and activities, cooperates in many different projects.
V. Mykolaitis-Putinas (1893–1967) – famous poet, playwright, prosaist, translator, professor of literature science, one of the most celebrated Lithuanian writers of the XXth century. V. Mykolaitis-Putinas was ordained as a priest, however he questioned his mission as a priest and in 1935 had deserted priesthood officially. Well educated (St.Petersburg, Munchen, received a Ph.D in Fribourg) he was one of the best professor at Kaunas university, read courses of New Lithuanian literature, Introduction to world literature, Aesthetics. In 1924-1932 he had edited magazine Židinys (The Hearth); in 1925 was a secretary of the Society of Lithuanian Artists, helped to establish an art society of students Šatrija. V. Mykolaitis-Putinas was famous for his poems, novels, plays. (Between the Two Sunrises 1927, The Lord 1928, In the Shadow of Altars 1933, The window 1966 and others).
The novel In the Shadow of Altars had started a new route in the history of a Lithuanian novel. Putinas has created a complex psychological image of an intellectual character, in a simple and natural form has written a work of high integrity and has shaken the limited folklorism and wandering formalism from the Lithuanian literature. This novel realistically describes the process of emotional and intellectual maturation of a creative personality, talks about important issues of spiritual life. Putinas’ dramatic work represents a bridge between his lyrical poetry and his fictional prose. In its essence it is still closely related to the poetry and is, from many a standpoint, its extension. The thematic moments analyzed in his lyric poetry are joined in his dramatic compositions into logical constructions of greater dimensions, intended to present the illusion of the essence of life.The poetry of Putinas readily falls into three periods: romantic (1911-1920), symbolistic (1920-1926), and classic (1926-1944). These divisions represent not only a difference in method, but also indicate quite accurately the pace of Putinas’ maturation as a poet.