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Villa of Engineer V. Reklaitis

Kacergine, Lithuania
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6-Reklaicio-vila

When Kaunas became the capital of Lithuania in the interwar period, the surrounding towns began to flourish as resorts. One of these resorts was the fishing town of Kačerginė. The resort attracted holidaymakers to spend time surrounded by pine trees with clean air to enjoy the jam and mushroom harvest, sports enthusiasts were attracted by the football pitch, and the dance pavilion was awaiting the steamboat that docked several times a day on weekends to bring in groups of townspeople and the orchestra that played during the outings. The fishermen in Kačerginė treated the summer visitors to home-smoked, fabulous-tasting fish, while farmers in the surrounding villages supplied fresh dairy products and vegetables cheaply. All this was a significant factor in the town's popularity. Writers, teachers, military officers, politicians, and other public figures of the time used to stay in the summer houses of intellectuals they knew and rented rooms from the locals. There were also those who made their wish to build a villa in the resort a reality. One such person was Viktoras Rėklaitis, an engineer, teacher, and businessman.

He built his villa in Kačerginė around the 1930s on the plot of J. Janonio 86. At the time, the street was part of the village of Palankių. Unfortunately, the architect of the building and the exact date of the construction is unknown. However, it is believed that the villa was built around 1935-1938 (maybe 1934). The building is one-story, slightly asymmetrical, and constructed of plain wooden planks. A glazed porch with an entrance is visible from the street. From the courtyard side of the two-story tower, you can see the Nemunas River, the greenery of the meadows in spring and summer, the beauty of the Panemunė region, and the town of Kulautuva, which is just visible on the other side of the Nemunas.

After the end of the inter-war period, the building housed a dispensary for many years. Even during the years of independent Lithuania, the villa remained abandoned for a long time until it was recognized as a symbol of great importance in shaping and preserving the collective memory of the resort. In 2016, the villa was renovated and became the home of the Kačerginė Town Elderly Municipality.

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