The printing house that was turned into a University

This is the first large state edifice built during the period of national independence (1918–1940), the first to be built as a result of an international bidding competition, and the first designed by a foreign architect. The German architect`s victorious design was amended by specialists from the Lithuanian Reconstruction Commision and the Berlin company (Becker-Fiebig-Bauunion) that executed the construction.

 

 

Grand Palace of the University, 1930–1935. Photo by Kaunas University of technology Museum.

 

In 1929 the building was turned over to the Kaunas university (given the name of Vytautas Magnus University in 1930). The redesign was created by the architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis, who transformed the industrial spaces into compartments according to the corridor system. In the Gediminas Street part a portion of the building was occupied by the Ministry of Education.

 

Vytautas Magnus University, between 1930–1940. Postcard.

 

The building is of an asymmetric L-shape plan and consists of two corpuses. The architectural expression is reserved and plain. The strictly rectangular spaces make up a clear constructive composition whose monotony is constituted by uniform elements arrayed in a uniform rhythm. The intersection of streets and buildings is accented by a corner exit/entry with a solemn staircase covered by a rounded balcony of similar form. Those contemporaries who were promoting the quest for a uniquely Lithuanian architectural style held this building to exemplify a type of German classicism that was alien to Kaunas.

Photos by: Ž. Rinkšelis and R. Kilinskaitė (“Ekskursas”).

The school consists of two blocks: a long one alongside the street and one joined perpendicularly in the yard. The classrooms are arranged on the street, the southern, side; while the corridors run into the yard. It was probably only when the school`s construction was coming to an end that it was decided to add the Pedagogical Museum. The overlays used in this school building were unique: beamless and made of continuous interconnected ceramic blocks. The composition of the street exterior attempted to enhance the impression of the facade`s length even more, an impression created by the monotonic rhythm of uniformly narrow windows and barely discernible pilaster strips.

The creation of a stylistic transition from retrospectivism to modernism, this building is dominated by features of modernized classicism. It was designed following the example of the newly built Brussels University Medicine Faculty, held to be one of Europe`s finest. Since the financial capabilities of Lithuania were more modest, the Kaunas building turned out accordingly: it is simpler. The structure of the blocks highlights the functional zoning: to administration and teaching; the connecting block and the auditoriums; and the last block was for research activities, including those of an Anatomy Institute. In 1936 the cellar was adapted for the first Lithuanian crematorium.

Photos by L. Mykolaitis and Ž. Rinkšelis, 2018–2019.