House of Janulaičiai family

Authenticity that reminds us the people who laid the foundations of the state 100 years ago

The house of Janulaičiai family was built in 1932, it was designed by a famous modernist architect of Lithuania Arnas Funkas. Augustinas Janulaitis was a public figure, professor, lawyer, historian, a member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, publicist and translator.

„My grandfather wanted to build his own house for his family. He had a library of 14 thousand books and he was a book lover. That is why the whole house was also a private library. Architect Arnas Funkas designed it so that every empty space or every windowsill would be a shelve. But because there was still not enough space for all the books, some of them were placed in the second row behind the first one. As book lovers say: “the book that is hidden behind another is already lost. That is because you no longer know what is hidden there.“ But every book in my grandfather‘s library had a number. Because of this clever system it was easy to find any book you need.“

Augustinas Janulaitis at his house in Kaunas, 1930s. Photo from the family archive.

His wife Elena was a painter, so an art studio with a big window was also in the house. Moreover, not only private but also active public life was happening at home. It was the gathering place of the intelligentsia.

Favorable destiny of the house

In 1940 the occupation and the Second world war disrupted a calm life of the family. On the other hand, a tragic fate has been avoided. The policy of communal living imposed by the Soviets had to be applied – more people had to be brought into a large single-family house.

„In 1940 at the start of the first occupation of Lithuania a Russian military officer and his wife were moved to live here with them. My grandparents told me that he was a cultured man. Grandfather even conversed with him. But his wife was very scared because she probably heard too much propaganda that we were fascist or even worse. She would sleep with a pistol under her pillow.“

„It was not calm during German occupation either. My grandparents told me that they were hiding a Jew. He survived the Holocaust. As I know, he found a job in Klaipėda after the war and used to bring chickens for us to eat. Those years were very difficult, there was a lack of everything.“

Photos of the house, 1940s. Private family archive.

Fortunately, all the residents of the house lived culturally enough, used one small kitchen, and vandalism was avoided. The most damage to the house was caused by the flood of the Nemunas river in 1946, during which the first floor of the house was flooded for up to half a meter. In 1993 the dependence of the house was returned to the owners – Janulaičiai family.

Text by Žilvinas Rinkšelis