On Sunday, September 13, the fifth open guided tours festival R13 will take place in Kaunas. While most of the festival’s program is in Lithuanian, some guided tours will be in English. You will have a chance to visit one of the most interesting buildings from the interwar period – the Lithuanian University Of Health Sciences Rectorate (historically known as Faculty Of Medicine at Vytautas Magnus University) on A. Mickevičiaus street.
Designed by architect Vladimiras Dubeneckis and built in 1933, this is one of the key representative buildings of the city and the state from the time when Kaunas was the temporary capital of Lithuania. Authentic interior details have recently been renovated; the vast spaces of the palace represent the aim to provide the best learning space for future medical doctors of interwar Kaunas. The historical building has already been discovered by movie-makers – Nova Lituania, one of the most ambitious Lithuanian films of the recent years, was partly shot here. The guided tours will give you a chance to experience the authentic interiors and atmosphere of a 20th-century-beginning university.
Back to school... In style! Photo by A. Aleksandravičius
The English-language tours will take place on 12:15 pm and 2:15 pm. Both tours will start at the Ekskursas pavilion in Nepriklausomybės square 14, by the St. Michael the Archangel Church (Soboras). Everything works on the first-come-first-serve basis – there is no advance registration, but you need to arrive at the pavilion at least 20-30 minutes earlier to sign up, provide us with your data and in that way reserve a spot. There will be a limited amount of spots available in each tour so there is no guarantee that everyone wishing to participate will get a chance to do so. If you can’t make it on Sunday, keep in mind the building is open for public all year round, so you’re welcome to take a sneak peek when in town.
Visiting the Lithuanian University Of Health Sciences Rectorate. Photos by Ekskursas
As in all events in Lithuania these days, every participant must wear a face mask throughout the whole registration and tour time. When signing up at the pavilion one must provide their personal details such as name, surname, telephone number, home address – for your and everyone's safety in case of the confirmed Covid-19 case among organisers or participants. Without doing so one will not be allowed to participate in the tour (the organisers will be managing your data according to the EU GDPR law and delete it after 21 day period).
R13 is an annual one-day-long event, hosted by local architecture lovers and professionals initiative Ekskursas. Its tours are all planned around the idea of showing the most interesting, core spaces of the building and telling key facts over a limited period of time. R13 is all about experiencing the most interesting architecture in Kaunas over 45-minute free tours in selected buildings. You are welcome to visit the organiser's pavillion for more information in English and hear about why modernism architecture matters in Kaunas.
