Lithuanian Garden

Dedicated in October 1936, the Lithuanian Cultural Garden extends from East Boulevard down three levels to Martin Luther King Boulevard. According to Clara Lederer, in Their Paths are Peace , the “original design was drawn up in Lithuania by Professor Dubinecras, and was modified to fit the boulevard topography by the City Plan Commission of Cleveland.”  The Lithuanian Cultural Garden’s choices of sculpture reflects how much questions of national identity played into the construction of many of the gardens. Designed in the shape of a lyre, the Lithuanian delegations explicitly organized the landscape into three levels, to represent three moments in Lithuanian history and its struggle for national identity.
The central feature of the garden’s upper level is the Fountain of Biruta, an ideal of feminine virtue, that represents the city’s pagan past and its conversion to Christianity in the 15th century. The upper-level’s fountain and terrace are framed by two nooks, each possessing a bust to a figure important to Lithuanian national identity. On one side of the garden is a bronze bust of Vincas Kudirka, a poet and composer of the Lithuanian National Anthem that was dedicated in 1938. On the opposite side of the garden stands a bust of Maciulis Maironis, a priest whose poetry advanced the cause of Lithuanian independence, which was dedicated in 1961.
The middle level of the garden is terrace defined by a sculptured wall with three pillars that towers above the garden’s lower level was modeled after the three pillars of Gediminas, a commemorative memorial in Vilnius, that symbolize the unification of Lithuania.
The lowest level, along MLK Boulevard, tells the story of Lithuania’s rebirth after World War I through the dominating bust of Dr. Jonas Basanavicius, a scholar, historian, and first president of the Lithuanian Republic in 1918. Dedicated in 1936, the bust was a gift of the Lithuanian government.
According to Clara Lederer, both the Basanavicius and Kudirka busts were copies of originals created by Jonas Zikaras, a prominent Lithuanian sculptor whose work championed Lithuanian national identity.
MTT