- Place
- Kaunas City Municipality
- Region
- Kaunas
- Type
- artists' memorial apartment museum
- Address
- 14 E. Fryko Street, Kaunas
- Coordinates
- 54.89210, 23.93239
- Visit duration
- closed for renovation; allow about 60-90 minutes after reopening
- Best time
- only after the museum officially announces reopening
Truikys House
A 1940 house and the artists' flat
Engineer Kazys Sienkevičius designed the house in 1940 for educator Petras Maldeikis and his wife. After the Maldeikis family left Lithuania, Liudas Truikys and Marijona Rakauskaitė moved into the second-floor flat in 1944.
They sought a quieter, more secluded place. Yet the apartment was never separate from art: domestic rooms, stage work, opera, collecting, and spiritual interests became one environment.
A scenographer and an opera prima donna
Liudas Truikys (1904-1987) was one of Lithuania's foremost opera scenographers. Sets for the State Opera brought him interwar recognition, and his work received a diploma at the 1937 Paris international exhibition.
Marijona Rakauskaitė (1892-1975) sang opera professionally from 1924 to 1948. Accessories, cosmetics, stage dress, and everyday clothing in her room turn the idea of a prima donna into a tangible life.
Authentic salons and collections
The museum, opened in 1994, reconstructed two large salons, the artist's study, and a bedroom from photographs and testimony. It preserves Truikys's paintings and designs for scenery, costumes, and church art.
Oriental sculptures, Persian carpets, Chinese vases, and incense burners stood alongside Lithuanian folk sculpture. These collections expose visual sources behind Truikys's distinctive rhythmic compositions.
How stage design follows musical rhythm
Truikys did not treat scenery as a decorative background. The Encyclopaedia of Lithuania highlights the refined visual language and repeated motifs of his mature designs, comparing their structure with musical rhythm. In the apartment, visitors can trace that idea through lines, fields of colour, and the Oriental objects collected beside his sketches.
Rakauskaitė's stage career provides the complementary view. After musical and dramatic studies in Chicago, the soprano created about thirty roles at the State Theatre and the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre, from Carmen and Tosca to Gražina. Her dress and accessories show how opera unites scenery, costume, voice, and movement.
The museum is closed for renovation
In 2026 the official museum page clearly marks this branch as closed for renovation. A visitor arriving at the building should not expect to enter the memorial apartment or buy a ticket.
Do not guess a reopening date: follow announcements from the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. Meanwhile, the main museum and Kaunas State Musical Theatre provide related context.
