Updated 2006-03-17

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Utena and Environs

Utena is the country’s fourth city, a town like any other, which hasn’t been flooded by any renovation waves.

My trips to Utena have been limited. I have mostly been travelling in the countryside around. The Vyzuonos and Uzpaliai villages have contributed to most of the pictures on this page, as well as Kartuviu hill, hiding so many horrible memories. We looked at the holy spring of Krokule, drank it, slopped around in it and made ourselves muddy.

This is the lowest level. Click the images to enlarge!

Utena General info about Utena, which, I willingly declare, I am not finished with yet. The most interesting visit was perhaps a rustic fire station in Vyzuonos, in what was previously the liquor factory of a large farm. That machinery was unfortunately gone. Utena Big street No, this is no party-town. A street corner is adorned by a Sun wheel. Beside it is a statue of Basanavicius. Every city has a Basanavicius Street. Lady flying out of a wall. Statue on the telephone company wall. Just a little walk away from the big street (above) and suddenly you hit the idyllic countryside. It’s just like walking into a book by Astrid Lindgren, like seeing a small Swedish village... some 70 years ago, before everything was made uglier by cement sheeting. An old bridge over Krasuona. Countryside, in the middle of town. Idyllic overload. But you are dangerously close to the big city. Just raise the camera a bit. If you want unbroken idyll you’ll have to go outside the city. Just grab some surroundings. Utenos Trikotazas, The knitwear factory in Utena is quite an interesting phenomenon as it was one of the first factories that got its steam back after independence in 1991 and started exporting big. Looking around in the factory outlet hall, one finds nametags from many of the well-known Swedish brand name fashion shops, with prices that few Swedish fashion shoppers would dream of. Instead of buying expensive clothes in Sweden, one could buy the same in Utena at a tenth of the price. It seems stupid in general to buy a few garments in Sweden, for astronomic prices, when you can get a truckload for the same money at the market place in any Lithuanian city. The Swedes are naïve to think that they are so clever buying cheap liquor going on the ferry to Finland or travel the Øresund Bridge to Denmark. The real gain is in buying cheap clothes, which is advantageous in Lithuania. This is the entrance to their factory outlet.

Utena, The Boat Church There had been some fighting going on over what to build on an empty lot... The result was a boat-shaped church that just has to be the most ugly church ever, well, not counting the new church in Sventoji. There is a strange likeness. Both have triangular towers. Hmm, could it be the same architect? Who didn’t learn? Titanic about to run aground. The most beautiful event, a wedding, but it isn’t overly beautiful... inside this oval brick mountain. Is it Jesus or Batman? Christ was sitting, unhappily watching the construction going on in 2004. While the church was being built, churchgoers had to make do with this microscopic one.

Wedding Hill, Vestuviu kalnas All newlyweds around Utena traditionally go to the Wedding Hill outside the city to celebrate. It has a portal and a collection of wooden sculptures depicting traditional Lithuanian wedding guests. The newlyweds. A girl bringing a flower. A girl bringing the traditional bread. A musician with his bagpipe. Some figures are cracked by the weather, some with the help of an axe. Lithuania’s patron saint St. Casimir guarding the newlyweds and their family. The Wedding Hill looks very much like Witches’ Hill in Juodkrante, although the subjects are different. It’s the same rugged style.

Ham Radio Station LY1PM Sometimes you bump into something fantastic. LY1PM - the greatest ham shack north of Neris. I saw the beautiful antenna farm from far away when I was driving some distance from Utena: three stacked short-wave yagis in a 40-metre tower, and an extra full-size yagi in a tower nearby. “Now, there’s a real radio amateur,” I thought, left the road an presented myself as Sugar Mike Zero Fox India X-ray from Stockholm, Sweden. That sort of talk opens doors and they showed me everything. Three stacked short-wave yagis on a rotating tower. The three radio amateurs running the LY1PM, built antennas and had fun in general. Next tower to be raised, painted and nice. The yagis were home-brew, but the tower and rotators were Soviet army surplus. The yagis were fed with 1 kW in phase. The mostly worked phone, but also some RTTY and digital communication. The old Soviet antenna rotator close up. Two longwires made according to the cow-fence method also start here. A bundle of five coaxes carries signal to the three yagis and two VHF antennas. Some rusty Soviet junk. Perhaps some of it can be salvaged. The operating shack had a few Yaesu transceivers, rotor indicators, computer, the compulsory, giant, green Soviet Elektronika 7 digital clock, coffee machine, drawings of upcoming antennas and a collection of QSL cards. And a Wunderbaum. The tech room was beside the shack, with instruments and component storage, and a workstation used for modelling and simulating new antennas before building them. With an antenna farm like that, the had of course made contact with most of the world.

The Square Church I do not have very much information about this church, so temporarily I call it The Square Church, as it is not characterised by any very slender lines. This massive church is situated right outside Utena. A walk through the aisle (and down)... No wavy lines here. The rectangle seems to have been the ideal design. The dome has a rather faded painting. towards the altar... There are very few decorations. Well, here is Jesus saying hello. Left side altar. and we’re getting closer... Right side-altar. The organ. It’s not big. But small... The altar and baptismal font were rounded and absolutely polished and I couldn’t help feeling “sanitary ware.” The pulpit is adorned with fantastic carvings. A worn-in confession stand. Stained glass, although maybe not the hottest I’ve seen. Over the gate is a relief of the Holy family. The memorial wall with plaques of known and unknown people who died in the great deportations. Most of them died 1945-1950, but many dates are unknown. A thinker reflecting over 600 years of Lithuanian Christianity (1387 - 1987). A grave close to the church. The memorial wall in the background. The typical Lithuanian wooden crosses flock in the back yard. On the roof between the towers a trumpeting angel sits. This very beautiful statue of Virgin Mary stands by the parking lot, nicer than most I’ve seen.

Krokule, the Holy Spring Krokule sounds as if taken from a book by Astrid Lindgren, but it happens to be a holy spring from medieval times that is said to have sprung forth from the rock after the Virgin Mary was seen here. The water is said to have healing properties and is very good for herbal tea. The first thing you notice is the totem pole. Well, it’s not a real totem pole... but a real old-time Lithuanian sign telling about “Sventas Krokules saltinis” that is, The spring of St. Krokule. As I hadn’t seen a holy spring before, I was excited. Quickly, through the gates. The area is quite plain: a micro temple with an image of Christ and the spring itself. People come from all over the country to fill large mineral water bottles. Of course I had to get down to make pictures, slipped in the mud and got my foot full of holy yuck. But it was washable with standard tap-water.

Uzpaliai If you follow Sventoji river from the main road and go past Vyzuonos, you will get to Uzpaliai, which I haven’t seen too much of either, except for the church and surroundings. It is very nice inside, even if I, as mentioned before, have problems with fluorescent tubes in churches. But that’s nothing compared to the Italians who use cheap, greenish tubes. That’s terrible. Let’s be different this time and go top-down, starting at the altar... Left large side-altar. The ceiling is magnificent, and became more so as the evening sun made everything golden. with the yellow-white streamers, bearing the Vatican’s colours. The left hand small side-altar half way down the church. Looking great at the outside, too. The church was lit by the setting sun, shining through the great gate. The right hand small side-altar half way down the church. St. Casimir, Lithuanian king and saint, cut from a pole on the church-yard. Finally we have arrived at the rear, and gone up on the organ loft. Right large side-altar. You can either go to the right or to the left of the firemen’s saint, St. Florion. He stands right outside the church.

Vyzuonos Vyzuonos is situated right north of Utena, at a tributary to Sventoji river. The grass snake Vyzas has given this little village its name. The grass snake was a holy animal in ancient pagan Lithuania and Vyzuonos had a pagan temple, hallowed to this very grass snake. You just can’t miss the snake as it stands at the entry from the main road. The grass snake close-up. Erection year is 1979. More snake. It is fantastic to see roadside sculptures. We have very few of them in Sweden. Lithuanian wooden art is unbelievably intricate. Roadside crosses are fairly common in Lithuania. The villages use them to show their Christian belief. Vyzuonos Fire Station This is heavy stuff. This is a ZIL fire engine (Soviet limo factory), and they have the same sort of truck all over Lithuania. It is big and robust and seems to be able to tackle anything. A mean machine! Takes 3 cubic metres of water. This truck once fell through the ice on the river, but was rescued and still works. We tried the siren and it also worked beautifully. The firemen don’t have very much equipment. The just have to work with what they’ve got. Vyzuonos’ Church The church in Vyzuonos is very old... built in the days of Vytautas the Great, the 15:th century. They say that one of the black balls in the facade is a Swedish cannonball.   Let’s begin the walkthrough with a picture from the organ loft. A look back at the organ loft, from whence we came. We walk along the aisle towards the altar. Notice the extraordinary ceiling paintings. We finish as close to the altar as one can get without making a fool of oneself. Turn you attention towards the ceiling. It is very beautifully painted. The pulpit is quite nice, too. The organ design reminds a lot of the facade of St. Anne’s Church in Vilnius.   The left side altar is turned 90 degrees from the main altar. That’s why the sun can shine on this... and on the right side-altar, which is turned 90 degrees as well. Quite a nice effect. This cross stands in the churchyard, which in Lithuania rarely has any graves. Behind it is a country house in the typical yellow colour.

Kartuviu Hill with the Partisans’ Grave Buried here are three of the partisans that fought the Communists in the Partisan war. They were killed on November 5, 1945. No one dared to mark the grave until after independence 1991. An even stranger monument at the same place is the triangular concrete “space ship” that some shepherds are said to have raised in memory of... ...Lithuania, Vytautas and Christianity. That it was left untouched during the dark years is next to unbelievable. The village of Vyzuonos also has a small sculpture park. Here is a beautiful woman with a decided face. She looks like wood, but happens to be metal painted like wood. A memorial of two poets from Vyzuonos, that were persecuted and driven to suicide by the Communists. You can see their suffering faces.