A Cultural Heritage in Photographs

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Lithuania

Rich in artifacts having folk artistic value, Lithuania, as Latvia and Estonia, is barely representedin the collections of the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art. As with all folkloristiccollections, the one in Vienna is characterized more by coincidences, personal preferences, aswell as by the personal biographies of the persons connected to it, rather than by any systematicapproach. This is how the Tyrolean vacation of the Haberlandt family found its way into thecollections, as well as Arthur Harberlandt's war- related stay in the Balkans, and the expeditionsby Rudolf Trebitsch and Eugenie Goldstern to Brittany, the Basque region, or to Savoy. Since itis uncertain whether or not anybody from the Viennese museum traveled to the Baltic, contactsfor Lithuanian remained limited to written correspondence and book exchanges.

Such exchange yielded a gold mine for the library and even now a surprising discoverywas made in connection with the dedication of a wrought- iron cross by the Lithuanian NationalMuseum for the exhibition of» 15+ 10.« Specifically found in the museum's photo archiveswere 31 photographs of small monuments, roof peaks, belfries, and wayside shrines fromLithuania, the tops of which are mostly crowned with crosses in similar artistic wrought- ironfashion. This inventory of photographs was referenced in 1931 as» in exchange,«< indicatingneither the location of the individual monuments nor the specifics of the exchange. The newand superbly illustrated catalogue by Skaidre Urboniene detailing the collection of such irontops in the ethnographic section of the Museum in Vilnius confirms the suspicion that these

European Ethnology in Lithuania photos could be from the collection of Adomas Varnas.

Lithuanian Institute of HistoryLietuvos istorijos institutas

www.istorija.lt

The history of Lithuania was for a long time bound to that of Poland, even if not alwaystension- free. Nevertheless, to this very day the Lithuanian people share with their Polish neigh-bors a deep Catholic faith. They alone withstood the constant onslaughts of the TeutonicInstitute of Lithuanian Literature Knights, but once their political union with Poland in the 14th century made them Christians,and Folklore these last remaining pagans of Europe became all the more grounded in their Christian faith.Lietuvių literatūrosLater the Russian Czarist regime suppressed the Lithuanian people, however, national identitylived on in their folksongs, literature and oral tradition, and in the erections of these very suchcross- monuments in their varied ornamental forms. National awareness and religion are hereclosely entwined. Therefore, it is not surprising that the erection of the Hill of Crosses nearSiauliai was a direct response to the threat of Soviet power. Devout Lithuanians believed thatthese wooden crosses best symbolized both their folk traditions and their opposition to thedeportation of their countrymen to the gulags of Russia.

ir tautosakos institutaswww.llti.lt

Vytautas Magnus UniversityVytauto Didžiojo universitetas

www.vdu.lt

National Museum of LithuaniaLietuvos nacionalinis muziejuswww.lnm.lt

Open- Air Museum of Lithuania

Lietuvos liaudies buities muziejus

www.mmlab.ktu.lt