Monument to Antanas Smetona in Palanga
Memorial site
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In Palanga, at the intersection of Birutės and A. Mickevičius Streets, there is a monument to Antanas Smetona.
Smetona was the first President of the Republic of Lithuania, leading the country during the War of Independence in 1919–1920. However, in 1926, he became President after the military carried out a coup d'état and overthrew the coalition government of peasants, people's activists and social democrats. The fourteen years of A. Smetona's rule are not only a period of economic progress in Lithuania, but also a period of authoritarian rule. A monument unveiled in Palanga in 2023 testifies to A. Smetona's connections with Palanga. The future President graduated from Palanga's progymnasium in 1893, and as President, he vacationed in Palanga every summer, usually in one of the villas built by Count A. Tiškevičius at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries surrounding the monument.
Used sources and references:
Liudas Truska, Antanas Smetona and his times, Vilnius, 1996.
Adolfas Eidintas, Antanas Smetona and his environment, Vilnius, 2012.
