Now it is hard to imagine that Laisvė aleja was once not only pedestrians but also transport. Huge changes, when the central street of Kaunas turned into a pedestrian boulevard, took place in 1977-1982.
During this time, according to the project of architects Alfredo Paulauskas and Vanda Paleckienė, the street was turned into a pedestrian zone.
Five types of concrete slabs were laid in it, which made up areas of various patterned pavements. 198 lighting supports are installed.
Now, only older Kaunas people remember, while younger people can see in photographs how impressive glass lampshades decorated the alley back then. And very few people know who made them back then.
Robert Zapolski from Kaunas told about it. Because his father, Adolfas Zapolskis, used to blow the glass enclosures, and Robert, who was a young glassblower at the time, helped to perform these difficult tasks.
Nice, but lacks warmth
Sports coach R. Zapolskis, who returned to his native Kaunas 4 years ago from a long emigration, often looks up at the lights while walking along Laisvė avenue. In his opinion, the current modern lighting matches the new decoration of the alley.
“However, it’s like techno music. There is no heat in it,” said the Kaunian.
The man remembers perfectly what lamps decorated the street when it was substantially reconstructed 42 years ago.
“Then my father worked as a glassblower at the Aleksot glass factory. I remember that one day he brought sketches and drawings that showed what kind of covers the architect A. Paulauskas envisioned for the new lamps. My father immediately said that making them would be a real challenge,” said R. Zapolskis.
The sizes of the hoods are impressive
The architect wanted the lamps to be decorated with large, massive, but transparent glass covers.
“The enclosure had to be 80 centimeters high and one meter in diameter, with a capacity of 11 liters. Imagine, it’s 11 kilograms of live, hot, flowing glass, from which they had to be blown and shaped,” intrigued the man from Kaunas.
R. Zapolski’s father was already an experienced glassblower, so the work was entrusted to him. But the master needed helpers. R. Zapolski was 17 years old at the time, he already helped his father work, and learned this trade from him. So the people of Kaunas got to work with one more helper.
“Father, while blowing glass and forming hoods from it, jumped on a special mold from which steam was smoking, he looked like a devil.
The work was hard. While working, he got such callouses on his hands that his father couldn’t bend his fingers,” the man from Kaunas recalled.
He also promised a considerable reward
The man no longer remembers exactly how many lampshades were produced, but most of the lighting poles had even four lights with glass covers.
“There were even more massive ones at the Laisvės Alley fountain – 9 lamps with hoods were attached to the poles in three rows. They resembled three-story cakes,” said the Kaunian.
R. Zapolskis said that the father was promised to pay 6 rubles for each hood.
“It was a lot of money back then. No one could pay them immediately, so the salary was paid in installments, money that was earned very hard had to be requested”, said R. Zapolskis.
When the reconstruction of Laisvė Alley was completed, a delegation from the then capital of the Soviet Union, Moscow, came to inspect it.
The authors of the reconstruction were awarded the prize of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.
“And my father was ordered to make some lampshades, which went to Moscow,” said R. Zapolskis.
He played with his father’s medals
The man from Kaunas said that when his father worked at the Aleksots glass factory, his picture hung on the honor board for his good work. Also, he was repeatedly awarded the Order of Labor Hero.
“As a child, I even played with them at home,” R. Zapolskis smiled.
However, few people talked about craftsmen even then in the public space.
“Glass painters and architects are better known to everyone, and those on whose shoulders it was necessary to implement serious, complex orders were not celebrated in any way,” lamented the Kaunian.
He could not live without fire
And R. Zapolski’s grandfather Juozas Zapolski was a glassblower. He was building a house right next to the Aleksots glass factory.
“In winter, when it was cold, my father would sleep on the sand in the factory. Growing up, he learned the glassblower trade from my grandfather and worked as a glassblower since the age of 14. The work was in three shifts, harmful to health, complicated, difficult, you had to work in the summer, when the temperature was 50 degrees in the workshop, even your eyelashes were burning. But my father gave his whole life to this work”, said the Kaunian.
Various vases and glass horns created at the Aleksots glass factory are probably still standing in the sections of the houses of older Kaunas residents. Those who were able to obtain and purchase such fashionable interior decorations at that time felt as if they had fulfilled one of their life’s dreams.
R. Zapolskis also keeps such items created by his father as precious memories at home.
Having reached retirement, glassblower A. Zapolskis did not want to be lazy yet.
“My father got a job in a cafe in Panemune, where meat was grilled. And then he couldn’t live without fire”, R. Zapolskis smiled.
However, the glassblower lasted only a few months – he returned to the Aleksot glass factory and revealed to his son that it was then that he was in the best shape.
Already posed a danger to passers-by
Stiklapūtis’ son R. Zapolskis completed his management studies, but after Lithuania regained its independence, he raised his wings and went to the United States. Later he moved to London and lived there for 11 years.
“While living abroad, I found out that my father has cancer. I wanted to return home in time, but when I was already on the bus, my relatives called and informed me that my father had died. It was in 2003,” R. Zapolskis recalled a sad moment.
Kaunietis said that one of his father’s most important works – the lampshades of Laisvės Alley – also turned out to be as fragile as life.
“They were cracking due to the effects of the climate. Since the hoods were not encased in, for example, openwork metalwork, it was apparently unsafe for people to walk under them. It’s true that Albertas Kalinauskas was still blowing new glass covers for a while, but eventually all the glass covers were removed,” said R. Zapolskis.
The cracking hoods were replaced with smaller plastic ones and served until the reconstruction of Laisvė aleja, which began in 2015 and is now coming to an end.
Modern lamps save electricity
Petras Švažas, the director of Kauno street lighting company, said that the old glass lampshades of the Laisvės alley lamps have not survived. The mass-produced plastic enclosures that replaced them were not valuable and were therefore disposed of.
In 2004, the technical project for the lighting of Laisvė Alley was prepared, it was planned to replace the lamps that were in the alley and the adjacent streets.
In 2007, the project was presented to the city council.
In 2008, new modern lights with 6, 2 or one metal halogen lamp were installed. They remained during the reconstruction of Laisvė aleja.
In 2022, LED modules were installed in the luminaires. This made it possible to save electricity.
The new lights were selected by the architect
After the renovation in 2022, when the main street of the old town of Kaunas – Vilniaus – opened to pedestrians, the new lamps attracted the attention of Kaunas residents. Residents compared them to glass milk bottles or champagne glasses.
The people of Kaunas also wondered why the old retro-shaped lamps reminiscent of interwar times were not preserved. Their design was created by architect Rimvydas Juozas Palys in 1985, during the renovation of Vilniaus street.
These lamps were protected as heritage, but the cast iron items were in very poor condition and were no longer being restored.
The old lamps remained on M. Valančiaus Street and in the area near the Arch-Cathedral Basilica. Dismantled lights are stored at S.Darius and S.Girėnos airfields. Their parts may be needed when repairing the remaining lamps in the Old Town.
When looking for new lighting ideas, it was decided that it was no longer worth trying to imitate the interwar times, so neutral-shaped lighting fixtures were chosen. They were chosen by the architect RJPalys himself.
