John Lennon Monument in Vilnius: The Bust With a Flower in Its Eye

The John Lennon monument in Vilnius is a bronze head of Lennon with a flower covering his right eye, mounted on a granite column in Johno Lennono skveras (John Lennon Square) at Mindaugo g. 27 in the Naujamiestis district. Jonas Gencevičius sculpted it from an idea by photographer Saulius Paukštys, and it was unveiled on 21 May 2015.

Where the flower comes from

The flower comes from a Robert Whitaker portrait of Lennon with a bloom held up over one eye. Print dealers date the photograph to 1965 and say it was taken in Weybridge, although some online guides give 1967. In Vilnius the flower covers Lennon's right eye.

The city tourism office connects the monument to Fluxus and to Jurgis Mačiūnas, who was born in Lithuania. That connection is context. It isn't where the image came from. The organisers did lean into it, though: an exhibition called "John Lennon and Fluxus" opened at the Oslo namai art space alongside the unveiling.

Two decades of talk, then a bronze

Saulius Paukštys and his friends had been discussing a Lennon monument for about twenty years before the plan went public in 2013. Paukštys had done this once before. In 1995 he was behind the Vilnius bust of Frank Zappa by Konstantinas Bogdanas, and the Lennon head became the city's second monument to a foreign musician with no ties to Lithuania.

The monument cost about EUR 10,000. Most of the money came from the developers of Oslo namai (Oslo Houses), the housing quarter beside the square, and other businesspeople paid the rest. One report names the developer as Selvaag, the company behind Oslo namai. That is probably the same backer described two ways, but we haven't found one source that ties the two together.

Around 200 people turned up on 21 May 2015. There was live Beatles music, and speeches from Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius and the British ambassador, David Hunt.

How big it is

The bronze head weighs about 100 kg. It sits on a 1.5 m granite column weighing roughly 300 kg, and the whole thing is a little over two metres tall. You will see it described as life-size, or with a two-metre column. The figures published at the unveiling don't support either.

Walk round to the back

Nearly every photo shows the face, which is a pity, because the back of the column has more to read. Words from "Imagine" are carved there. Gencevičius explained the choice by saying that song is what people's idea of Lennon is most bound up with. The names of everyone who chipped in for the monument are inscribed on it too.

According to the people who created the monument, if you touch the flower over Lennon's eye, your wish will come true.

Finding it

The square's official name is Johno Lennono skveras. It is at Mindaugo g. 27, next to the Oslo namai buildings (see the map), about 0.6 km in a straight line from Vilnius railway station.

Ignore two bits of advice that circulate online. There is no tram to take, because Vilnius has no trams; the city runs buses and trolleybuses. And you can't get there with a quick walk from Cathedral Square along Konstitucijos prospektas. That avenue is across the Neris to the north, the wrong way entirely, and the square is about 1.7 km from the cathedral as the crow flies.

Paukštys's first music monument, the Frank Zappa bust, is on K. Kalinausko g., about 1.2 km north of the Lennon head, so the two are easy to see on the same walk. Lennon busts and statues in other countries are in the full list of memorials.