Monument to Kristijonas Donelaitis
On October 25, 2004, a monument dedicated to Kristijonas Donelaitis was opened in the town of Gusev. Kristijonas Donelaitis, the classic Lithuanian poet was born on January 1, 1714 on the farm of Lazdinelen that was located roughly 6 km far from Gumbinnen.
1732 to 1737, he studied at the faculty of theology of the University of Königsberg.
1743 he was assigned the pastor of the Tolmingkemen town parish (now Chistye Prudy of Nesterovsky District) where he worked for 37 years, up to his very death. He passed away on February 18, 1780.
He was a multilateral and gifted man who loved music and built Lithuanian national string instruments himself. From then on, he became fascinated with natural science and made lenses, thermometers and barometers as well as worked in a garden and composed verses.
His extensive poetic cycle, "Seasons", where he sang the nature and labor of simple people, later became fundamental for Lithuanian fiction and a pearl for world poetry.
Portraits of Donelaitis have not been found yet. That is why, as Donelaitis's remains were found in 1945 after the Great Patriotic War, his portrait had to be created based on features of his remained skull; that portrait has been shown in all publications since then.
A monument to Donelaitis was opened in the town of Gusev on October 25, 2004. Richard Meier, Nikolay Tishchenko, Vitaly Khvaley are authors of the monument, and Boris Yarov is the author of the facade painting of houses in the background of the monument; all of them are residents of Gusev.
Photogallery
3
