№ 13
A Postcard, 1897–1915

Lentvaravas — A Forgotten Name

This postcard is another view from the same Vilnius-region postcard collection compiled by D. Keršytė: the palace with its pointed neo-Gothic tower, seen across the lake, a long farm building on the left, and a boat landing on the near shore. The caption reads: "Landwarów. — Lentvaravas." Published in: Keršytė, D. Vilniaus vaizdų atvirukai 1897–1915.

Notice the second name — "Lentvaravas." This is a forgotten, early attempt to Lithuanianize the place name — long before 1939, when Lithuania regained the Vilnius region and place names were officially Lithuanianized into their current forms, giving the town its present name, "Lentvaris." Before that, Slavic-language sources called it "Landworowo" or "Litavaras." Unlike the other postcard in this exhibition, captioned in Russian and Polish, this one is captioned in Polish and Lithuanian, with no Russian text at all — likely a sign that its publisher was aiming at a Lithuanian-reading audience, even under tsarist rule, after the 1904 lifting of the ban on the Lithuanian press.

The animation recreates this view as though it had been photographed with a modern camera — letting you see the palace alive and in colour.

Point 13 of 99All exhibits →