The 300th anniversary of Donelaitis will be celebrated in Kaliningrad

KALININGRAD. The regional government of the Kaliningrad region reported that all the events dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the founders of Lithuanian literature, poet and enlightener Kristionas Donelaitis will be held in the region where the writer lived his whole life.

“The regional philharmonic society will host a gala evening in honor of the prominent Lithuanian poet’s jubilee, on the same day a donation ceremony will be held on behalf of Donelaitis to the city library of Nesterov, and on Wednesday there will be a celebration dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the creation of the museum in the village of Chistye Prudy,” says in the message.

All the works of Kristionas Donelaitis during his life were distributed in the form of manuscripts. Unfortunately, today there are only six fables and one poem, “The Seasons” (writing years 1765-1775), which glorified Donelaitis to the whole world (in 1977 it was included in the list of UNESCO European masterpieces). The poem, eventually translated into several languages, is dedicated to the work and hard life of the peasant people.

In his youth, Kristionas Donelaitis graduated from the theology faculty of the University of Koenigsberg, after which he began working as the leader of the church choir and music teacher. In 1743, he joined the pastor of the Lutheran church in Tollmingken (now the village of Chistye Prudy, bordering Lithuania), where he was buried.

In 1979, in the village of Chistye Prudy, a memorial museum was opened (which is a branch of the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art) in the restored building of the former Lutheran church. It was in this building that Kristionas Donelaitis preached and held services for his parishioners. In 1998, the pastor’s house, in which the poet lived and worked, was also included in the museum complex.

Svetlana Korableva © Gallerix.ru