Top Historic Sights in Alytus, Lithuania
Explore the historic highlights of Alytus
St. Louis' Church
The first church on the site was built in 1524. The first wooden church was called St. Jonas Baptist church, The Virgin Maria Assumption church and St. Nicola’s church. After the church burnt, in 1818 a new stone church in classical style was built next to the old church. In the honour of the priest Liudvikas Kaminskas, the initiator of the construction, the church was sacred to the memory of St. Louis. Today this i ...Alytus Castle Mound
Alytus mound is the only preserved witness of the foundation of the town and it dates probaly from the 11th century. It is said that a wooden castle was standing here in the 14th century that was burnt down later by the Teutonic Order. The detailed route to Alytus castle is described in Teutonic “The Description of Lithuanian Roads”, this castle defended the main roads to Trakai and Vilnius from crusaders. A ...Jewish Genocide Cemetery
During the Word War II, when Alytus was occupied by Germans, Jewish people were shot in Vidzgiris forest and buried in common graves. According to written sources, mostly people from the east of former Soviet Union and Czech Republic were killed here. This forest became the place of eternal rest for many Jewish people from Alytus region. On March 18, 1993, reconstructed memorial, designed for Jewish victims, was unveiled ...Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument. The architect was Henry Bacon and the designer of the primary statue was Daniel Chester French.
Dedicated in 1922, it is one of several monuments built to honor an American president. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been a symbolic center focused on race relations.
The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, 'The Gettysburg Address' and his 'Second Inaugural Address'. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, delivered on August 28, 1963, during the rally at the end of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Since 2010, approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually.