Park of Europe

The Park of Europe or Europos Parkas is situated near Vilnius in a small village of Yoneykishkju and is a very popular place. Tourists and guests of the Lithuanian capital visit it very often. It was founded in 1991, i.e. two years after the French Geographical Institute officially proclaimed the centre of Europe to be some kilometers away from Vilnius.

The idea of the creation of this park in Lithuania is very much alike the idea of the creation of Grutas Park and the Park of Europe. The difference is that the exposition of the Park of Europe practically has nothing to do with the tragic past of Lithuania and the exposition of the Grutas Park is devoted to history. The Park of Europe is a unique place made at the creative initiative of artists from all over the world from Cyprus to Egypt. There are more than 100 sculptures on the territory of 50 hectares there. Among them there are works belonging to a Japanese sculptor Tei Kobayasi, an American master Denis Oppenheim and many others. The works of art constitute an integral ensemble together with picturesque Lithuanian landscapes.

To be precise the Park of Europe is still connected with the Soviet past of the century. We can’t but mention the main exhibition called “LNK Infomedis”. This sculpture is a sort of a labyrinth made up of 3000 old TV-sets. Its creation began in 1999 on the initiative of the National Lithuanian TV channel, which proclaimed the action with a slogan “Presènt Europe with apubs and old TV set”. The citizens of the country were surprisingly unanimous in their desire to take part in the action and the number of the old TV sets was really great. All of them served as the foundation for the creative activity of Gintaras Karosas, who is a sculptor and an ideal inspirer of the Park of Europe. In the centre of the labyrinth there is a statue of Lenin, which symbolizes the absurdity of the Soviet propaganda and ideology.

The Park is open every day since 10 am till the darkness. The price for a ticket is 21 Lit. Excursions are organized in English, Lithuanian and Russian. There are a restaurant, a conference hall, a souvenir shop. Different meetings and concerts are organized in Europos parkas in the residence of the artists.

The site of the park: www.europosparkas.lt