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| Introduction to the Lithuania Route (English only) |
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| FACTS
ON LITHUANIA Country name: Republic of Lithuania Type: parliamentary democracy Area: 65,200 sqkm Regions: 10 apskritys/counties Capital: Vilnius Participation, a.o.: Council of Europe, European Union applicant, OSCE, UN/UNESCO Population: 3,592,561 (2003) Language(s): Lithuanian (official), Polish, Russian Ethnic groups (from 1% on): Lithuanian 80.6%, Russian 8.7%, Polish 7%, Byelorussian 1.6%, other 2.1% Religions: Roman Catholic (primarily), Lutheran, Russian Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical Christian Baptist, Muslim, Jewish Currency: Litas (LTL) GDP / capita: US$ 8,400 (2002) |
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Textile Contact Point | |
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| Facts and more information on Lithuania (English only) |
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| Introduction to the Lithuania Route Leading project partner: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Institute of Arts; Ms Vita GelunienÈ, Chief Assistant Lithuania is a small Baltic country, and the distance between separate points of the textile route is only 100 km. However, even in this small territory it is possible to discover historical and contemporary textiles. Since ancient times textiles have played an important role in Lithuania. A great variety of cloths was produced in specialised weaving workshops. In 1578, the Vilnius weaving workshops and subsequently the Kaunas weaving workshops were established. In the 17th to 18th century, the cloth industry prospered and supplied cloth for various social groups in the Great Duchy of Lithuania. Trade was established with Italy, the Near East, the Netherlands, and by the 18th century, with France. In general these workshops were supervised by weavers from the most important European textile centres. In 1770 there were fifteen renowned cloth workshops in Lithuania and by 1780 the number had risen to twenty-three. These workshops were owned by prominent Lithuanian families. Following the Third Polish-Lithuanian Separation in 1795, the territory of Lithuania came under the leadership of the Russian Empire. There followed a period of economical decline caused by this final loss of independence. This also had a negative influence on culture and art. The cloth workshops were closed one by one. The owner families had little option but to move to Poland or other countries, taking with them collections of paintings and tapestries. Today a part of these collections is kept in the museums of Lithuania. After World War 2, Lithuania became part of the Soviet Union. Many new textile factories were set up all over the country. The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to a new period of industrial decline. Today many of these factory buildings are sitting empty or have changed their usage. However in some cases the factories were able to continue production by meeting new needs and successfully selling their products. The Lithuanian textile route is intended as an interface acknowledging the cultural textile heritage as well as contemporary art, craft and industrial production. The route will acquaint people with historical textiles in museums and with the education and training of professionals in universities. It will give an insight into industrial production and list various textile events in different places in Lithuania.  |
| The routes are presented in English; the description of the stations is also in other languages |
| Die Hauptsprache der Routen ist englisch; Beschreibungen der einzelnen Stationen sind auch in deutsch |
| La langue dominante est l'anglais; la description de chaque station est en francais aussi |
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