Postage Stamp for VMU Anniversary Released

The Lithuanian Postal Service has issued a special postage stamp dedicated to VMU’s 25th reestablishment anniversary. The stamp was put into circulation on 8 March 2014.

The stamp, which was designed by Lithuanian artist Domantas Vildžiūnas, depicts the logo of Vytautas Magnus University: the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas Magnus sitting on his throne. The stamps were issued in a limited edition of 80,000 copies.

The denomination of the stamp is 1.55 LTL.

The inception of Vytautas Magnus University coincided with the birth of Lithuanian statehood. Having declared the country‘s political independence on February 16th in 1918, the key figures of Lithuanian enlightenment considered it a high priority task to establish a Lithuanian university. Four years later, the University of Lithuania was opened and remained the only Lithuanian school of higher education during the interwar period. Since its very first years, it remained a vitally important hotbed for cultural, scientific and modern national ideas. When the 500th anniversary of the death of Grand Duke Vytautas Magnus was commemorated in 1930, the University of Lithuania was renamed to honour his name and the occasion.

The Soviet government closed down the university in 1950, but some of its faculties served as a foundation for other schools of higher education: Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Kaunas University of Technology and Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Thanks to emigrants, the academic tradition of VMU not only survived, but also kept developing for long years until restoration of independence. In 1989, the university was re-established in a collective effort of Lithuanian and emigrant scientists. At the time, it was the first autonomous school of higher education in the country.