Two contractors bid to build partisan memorial columbarium in Leipalingis

Two construction firms have submitted bids to build a memorial columbarium for Lithuanian freedom fighters in Leipalingis, with a planned reburial ceremony set for November, BNS reports.

Vytas Lukšys, deputy director of the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre (LGGRTC), announced during a meeting of the Seimas Freedom Struggles and Historical Memory Commission that the public procurement tender received two proposals. “The amounts are, of course, higher than what the Government Chancellery allocated,” he noted.

In April, the government earmarked over €214,000 for the project. After reviewing the bids, officials expect to select a contractor by May 29 and finalise the construction agreement within days. “We anticipate the reburial ceremony will take place around November,” Lukšys said.

The columbarium, to be built in the central section of Leipalingis Cemetery, will house the remains of partisans, couriers, and their supporters killed in the surrounding area. It will feature individual burial niches, a central Vytais Cross symbol, and informational displays—including QR codes detailing the lives of those interred. The design also allows for future expansion to accommodate up to 100 burials, as ongoing searches continue to recover partisan remains.

Since 2020, over 40 sets of partisan remains have been discovered in Leipalingis, including those of Juozas Vitkaus-Kazimieraitis, a key resistance leader reburied in Vilnius’ Antakalnis Cemetery last October. The remains of other identified partisans have been held in temporary storage at the LGGRTC’s facilities in Vilnius due to funding delays for the memorial.

Lithuania’s partisan war against Soviet occupation (1944–1953) involved at least 50,000 combatants and 100,000 supporters, with over 20,000 killed in the conflict.