Regėjimais steigiama tikrovė: antikinis Sigito Lasavicko Vilnius kaip atminties bendruomenės namai

ENIn commemoration of the symbolic anniversary of Vilnius, the article is dedicated to one of the most famous scholars of Vilnius’ past - architect, archaeologist, restorer Sigitas Benjaminas Lasavickas (1926-1998), who worked on the oldest and most important architectural monuments of Vilnius and Lithuania, participated in the most important archaeological research, and in 1986, contributed to the epochal discovery in Kernavė - an ancient settlement in the valley. The researcher, named the priest of old Vilnius, whose works became part of the history of Lithuanian heritage protection, surprised contemporaries with the magic of his personality and a legendary intuition that helped him predict what archaeologists would only find many years later. The almost pedantic precision in this personality was consistent with the element of imagination, a necessity of scientific knowledge, but sometimes seemingly the opposite, and more characteristic to, say, mythical or poetic cognition. Having seen images of the city’s panorama and ruler, inscriptions, and even numbers, on a bone discovered during archaeological research in 1978, he created a vision that takes us to Vilnius during the time of the legendary Grand Duke Šventaragis. According to the Lithuanian Chronicle written in the first quarter of the 16th century, Šventaragis ordered his son to establish a sanctuary of the Lithuanian nation at the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia rivers - a place for cremating the dead grand dukes of Lithuania and the most famous noblemen, where, according to M. Strijkovskis, the first one was solemnly burned in 1272.The panorama of this legendary period of Vilnius, as seen on the bone, gave a visible shape to S. Lasavickas’ attitude towards the history of the city during his long years of research. Behind the poetic vision in which Lithuania is seen in line with the cultural heritage of ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt, there was also a feeling of pain for the destruction of cultural memory. Lasavickas dared to oppose the destruction of cultural monuments during both the Soviet occupation and the post-Soviet period. He died in 1998 during the public consideration of a detailed plan for the construction of a hotel in the valley of Šventaragis. His death in the defence of the values he dedicated his whole life to has become part of Lasavickas’ legend. [From the publication]