Grutas Park

Grūtas, Lithuania

Grūtas Park (Grūto parkas) is a sculpture garden of Soviet-era statues and an exposition of other Soviet ideological relics from the times of the Lithuanian SSR. After Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, various Soviet statues were taken down and dumped in different places. Viliumas Malinauskas requested the Lithuanian authorities to grant him the possession of the sculptures, so that he could build a privately financed museum. This Soviet-theme park was created in the wetlands of the Dzūkija National Park. Many of its features are re-creations of Soviet Gulag prison camps: wooden paths, guard towers, and barbed-wire fences.

The exposition, consisting of 86 statues by 46 different sculptors, is organized into spheres. Each of the statues features a Soviet or socialist activist, many of them ethnic Lithuanians. The Totalitarian Sphere features sculptures of the main Communist leaders and thinkers, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Karl Marx. The Terror Sphere is dedicated to sculptures of founders of the Communist Party of Lithuania (Zigmas Aleksa-Angarietis, Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas) and officers of the Red Army (Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis, Ieronim Uborevich). It also has a sculpture of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the organizer of the Red Terror.

The Soviet Sphere includes sculptures of the four leaders of Lithuanian Communists, executed in the aftermath of the 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état, and activists of the Lithuanian–Soviet War of 1918–1919. The Red Sphere is dedicated to Soviet partisans, including Marytė Melnikaitė. The Occupation and Death Spheres showcase the brutal side the Soviet regime: mass deportations, suppression of the Lithuanian partisans, etc.w

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Address

A4, Grūtas, Lithuania
See all sites in Grūtas

Details

Founded: 2001
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Lithuania

Rating

4.3/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Gintare D (2 years ago)
A park with reminders of seriously dark times for Lithuania. Walking through the path of history, where dictatorship ideas were portrayed as idealistic is somewhat surreal. Unique place with interesting energy. It’s worth a visit, it may not be the most joyous one though
Equaals (2 years ago)
Amazing soviet statue park, has a zoo also for some reason. The Gira is great too.
Tea Selakovic (2 years ago)
The soviet statue park is realy nice. The ZOO part is horrible, the animals kept in terrible condition. My heart is broken for that poor bear, monkeys and most of them that suffer for tourists entertainment. There is a no dog sign but if you pay 4 euros more lady lets you in with a dog.
Lalita Hlinskaya (2 years ago)
Great place with a LOT of soviet monuments and history. Walking around makes you feel like you're in USSR. Park has a lot of animals (zoo), and some of them were very hard to watch. For example, Bear was in a small cage, etc. The same goes for birds, kangaroos, and other animals. It's unpleasant to watch these animals.
Nikita Janockin (janock1n) (3 years ago)
Great place. For my surprise, it is not only a huge park which contains many Soviet Union sculptures, paintings, parts of the buildings and etc. but also has a huge zoo on its territory. Really enjoyed visiting it, we spent two hours here which seemed to be just like few minutes. Enjoyed visiting gallery of Soviet paintings, walking around the park with great nature. Would definitely recommend going there
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