Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic States. Within the country lies the exact geographical centre of Europe. This was certified in 1989 by the French National Geography Institute as being in Purnuðkis, 27 km north of Lithuania’s capital ,Vilnius.
The Lithuanian language is the offical language of the Republic of Lithuania. It is one of the world’s oldest surviving languages, and is distantly related to Sanskrit, a religious and literary language in India. Because it has changed less than other languages, Lithuanian is a linguistic link to the past and has a special place in the study of languages.
Lithuanians were staunchly pagan until the 1300s, when they still worshipped the likes of Perkûnas, god of thunder. They’ve been staunch Catholics for going on six centuries.
In medieval times, Lithuania was a major European power. By sheer military might and diplomatic skill, Lithuania by 1400 was an empire streching to the Black Sea.
Lithuania is the first state that has left the former Soviet Union. The Republic of Lithuania restored its independence on 11 March 1990. From 14 June 1940 till that day it was incorporated in the Soviet Union.
Today Lithuania makes efforts to joint the European family as its full and equal member.

A lively undulating land, a land with the glow of love and warmth. Like the sea on which she leans in the West. She comes rolling on hillocks and dells, forests and groves, rivers and lakes, bringing for a human being work and recreation, joy and love, concern and pain.Then, like a countrywoman who has never in her life seen the sea, she comes to a halt. She stands on the shore of the Baltic Sea and, shielding her eyes with her hand, she gazes into the boundless expanse of the world and the human soul, seeing there

all the fear and the hope,
the wars and the plagues

which history has ever brought to this land. Each of us might take her for his own mother:

When she smiles,
a small child utters: “Mummy.”

When she kisses,
a youth says: “ I love you.”

When she sometimes bursts weeping,
we die

or survive,
of her tears unworthy.

We call out to her in a low voice: “Lthuania.”She echoes back with the rustling fields and forests, flows up with her rivers and lakes, heaves a sigh with her fortress hills and tumuli, bows down with her dells, and in the glow of her sunsets and sunrises emerges crowned with with a garland of golden rye or white-frost flowers.It seems that it is not we who are looking at this land, but she herself is gazing at us.We can hear her too, as a folk song, ringing near and dying away.
This is a land of life, a land of work and recreation, a land of our love and pain. Call out to this land:”Lithuania”

Poet Justinas Marcinkevièius