At the beginning of the 1980s, the area where Pašilaičiai is now consisted of the villages of Pašilaičiai and Pavilioniai. Today’s Pašilaičiai is a child of ‘perestroika’ and of the first decades of independence.
The first blocks were built in the fields of Pašilaičiai village in the spring of 1986. The buildings were designed by K. Balėnas, G. Balėnienė, D. Ruseckas, A. Leckienė, S. Garuckas, and others.
It was a very different residential area from the previous ones. For the first time, in Pašilainiai, staggered high-rise blocks were built: in the centre of each block were nine-storey blocks, while on the edges of each section, the stairwells of the next section staggered down to five or even three storeys. Three of the districts are located within the circular ring-shaped streets (the first one on Žemynos Street, the second on Medeinos Street, and the third on Gabijos Street), while the fourth monolithic one (Pašilaičių Street) is located in flatter territory built on the perimeter principle. The latter is exceptional in general – it was the first time that mass-produced blocks of flats had been planned. A little further away from these buildings that were built between 1985 and 1990 is the area of Pašilaičiai between Laisvės pr. and Ukmergės g., which was built up after 1993. The first ‘western’ shopping centre ‘Pas Juozapą’ was built there. At that time, there was very little construction work in the city; it had really only occurred in the suburbs where individual houses were built, so these new blocks of flats were considered prestigious, just like the blocks of flats in Pašilaičiai.
What will you learn and see if you choose this route?
- What distinguishes Pašilaičiai from other residential areas of Vilnius?
- What are the places that have made Pašilaičiai part of the history of Lithuanian popular and rock music?
- Which Vilnius shopping centre was the most westernised in the 1990s?
