Author: Raminta Mačytė

The complex of building of the former Teachers’ seminary located on Vytauto street remembers well the times of the first revival, too. The seminary was founded in the former club of officers in 1919. It was one of the first two institutions preparing teachers in Independent Lithuania. There is a nicely repaired library near the main building. The Faculty of Education Science and Social Work of Marijampolė College was operating there until 2014.

According to historians, the Kvietiškis Manor was built in 1717 by Elder of Prienai Markas Antonijus Butleris and his wife Pranciška. It comprised a wooden mansion, 3 barns, 2 granaries, 3 stables, a grain storage chamber, cart storage and other buildings. At that time manors were built from the cheapest wood materials, therefore the first buildings of the manor did not survive to this day. In 1738, the Kvietiškis Manor was mentioned in the inventory of the Prienai eldership for the first time. The manor inventory of 1782 provides a view of the manor back in those days: it comprised 20,000 hectares of land, 35 villages and 7 villages related to the forestry business. During the land reform of 1926, the manor was left with only a large farmstead with 65 hectares of land. In the same year the Lower School of Agriculture was founded. For 45 years after the Second World War it operated under the name of Technical School of Agriculture. As of 31 August 2001 it is the home of a higher-education institution – Marijampolė College. Currently the remaining wooden manor house, dairy, warehouse with a basement, barn, janitor and farmhand houses are historically, architecturally and culturally significant.

Vytenis General Support Logistics Battalion is one of the historical – cultural sites in Marijampolė with a fresco hall, battalion museum and a lingering horse manige building.

The fire of 26 Mat 1894 laid waste to the city centre and the street which was then called Policijos (currently P. Butlerienės st.). It created a new empty space which during the reconstruction was used to build a new synagogue. In 1899, city’s architect Valerijus Rybarskis designed a house of prayer and, most likely after one year, it became a new elegant landmark of Marijampolė. The synagogue was actively used until the Second World War. After the war the Soviet government established a warehouse and vegetable shop here. Both the interior and the exterior of the building were damaged. In 1985, the synagogue was reconstructed and given to Marijampolė’s House of Engineers and a library of technical literature. After a decade, the building was started to be used by an educational centre of the Marijampolė district, later replaced by an educational centre of a well-known teacher, educologist and creator of the national school Meilė Lukšienė. In 2014, an art gallery of Beatričė Kleizaitė-Vasaris found home in the synagogue. It exhibits the painting, graphical and sculptural works created by well-known Lithuanian expatriates.

Marijampole Railway Station was built between 1923 and 1924 and has a great architectural value. It is one of the most decorated objects of such functional style in Lithuania. In terms of composition and style, the station is original among the buildings of this purpose in Lithuania. The station is bunk, with a large local water tower in the center and a single-storey trunk and administrative premises. The building is made of brick, the exterior walls are covered with red finishing tiles with inserts of plastered parts. Asymmetrical, progressively developing composition of the building is characteristic of the modern direction. In the décor of the building there are also supports of historical styles (attic decoration elements close to neobarok, high chimneys are taken from neo-Gothic), but thanks to stylization, this detail harmoniously binds to the whole. Valuable and protected elements and parts of the building are the volume of the building, authentic materiality, facades and their décor, interiors and their décor, planned – spatial structure, authentic joinery products (passenger waiting room benches, doors, windows).