The Oldest Museum in Vilnius Invites to Celebrate its 110th Anniversary

110 years ago, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum was established on Bernardinų Street. To commemorate its long life, the museum belonging to Vilnius University organizes events and invites visitors to get acquainted not only with the backstage of the poet’s life and work but also with the very colorful history of the museum.

“The Adam Mickiewicz Museum in Vilnius is the oldest place of memory operating in the same place and dedicated to one person. Founded on the personal initiative of Jan Konrad Obst, it was closed several times and revived thanks to another lover of A. Mickiewicz’ work. Each flourishing of the museum after a difficult period is proof that as long as there are people who care about A. Mickiewicz, the museum will always invite passers-by to the cozy courtyard and modest rooms where the poet experienced moments of inspiration and was convinced that he and all his friends came into this world to fulfill a noble goal,” said Alicija Dzisevič, a museologist at the Adam Mickiewicz Museum.

On 23 September 1911, the Vilnius weekly “Iliustruotas Savaitraštis - Liaudies Draugas” published an article “Lithuanian collector (Pol. “Zbieracz litewski“), introducing an opera singer, journalist, editor of the magazine “Lietuvos ketvirtinis”, who just move from Petersburg to Vilnius, Jan Konrad Obst and his wife Rose. The couple had bought a house at Bernardinų g. 11 a few years ago, where, according to the city’s legend, Adam Mickiewicz lived and prepared “Gražina” for the press. In A. Mickiewicz’s room, under the wallpaper, J. K. Obst found a confirmation of the said legend - a memorial plaque “This is where I wrote Gražina/1822” (Pol. “Tu pisana Grażyna/1822”). This is how the museum dedicated to the memory of Adam Mickiewicz began.

The Obst family brought a large collection to Vilnius, which contained valuable books, furniture, carpets, paintings, and documents of the 1863 uprising. The collection was exhibited on the second floor, in Obsts’ private rooms. The portraits, lithographs, and other objects related to the famous poet and his work collected in the family collection became part of the exposition of the newly opened A. Mickiewicz Museum.

27 years later, the family decided to move to a manor house in a village, and J. K. Obst transferred the Bernardinų g. 11 building with the museum and exhibits there to Stephen Báthory University: In 1938 saw the signing of the Donation Act.

On the occasion of the anniversary, the Adam Mickiewicz Museum (Bernardinų g. 11) invites to the exhibition “110 Exhibits: Stories and Memory” opening on 30 September and anniversary tours around the city to see the poet’s first and last visited object in Vilnius and locations of pharyngeal meetings, and many other things.

Register for the tours here.