The story of one Lithuanian who lived in Kaunas in the early 20th century deserves to be made into a film. Instead, a group of Kaunas residents are using it in their intriguing new tour of the Kaunas Old Town. This is the first project of its kind in Lithuania.

Beginning this week locals and visitors will be able to follow this exceptional itinerary through Kaunas called “Spirit Guide through Old Kaunas” with a narration about the story of Kaunas and people living in Kaunas.

An audiovisual tourist guide file at www.atmintiesvietos.lt is available for free download before embarking on this 70 minute tour starting May 5.

Daiva Citvarienė, a teacher from the Arts Faculty at Vytautas Magnus University and the director of the university’s 101 Art Gallery, and a team of professionals created the project.

Citvarienė says the tour will help Kaunas residents discover their own city and discover a new appreciation of it. The excursion and narrative, she hopes, will encourage business people renovating old buildings to be more responsible with and appreciative of the city’s legacy.

Q. How did you come up with the idea of an excursion encouraging searching for the old spirit of Kaunas? How will it be possible to use the route you’ve created and what will people travelling it hear?

A. The Spirit Guide through Old Kaunas project is kind of a continuation of an earlier project called Location of Memory. In 2014 we created an internet page with interactive documentary material, photographs and testimonies about Freedom Alley.

Now that 101 Gallery has moved into the Old Town, every day I try to learn more about this part of Kaunas and its history. It’s difficult to love a city if you don’t know its history. I think the city is inseparable from the people living in it and their stories.

A story by a professor living in the United States about the life of Kaunas resident Juozas Rutkauskas piqued my interest. He was born in 1900, lived through two world wars, married a German who left for Germany with her children when Hitler entered Klaipėda. The children fought in the Germany army and he at that time saved Jews living in Lithuania. In 1944 the Germans murdered him.

The story of this man and his period became the basis for our project. If you download the digital guide file to a mobile phone, tablet or portable media player, you can listen to the story created by Rytis Zemkauskas and travel through the Old Town along the route indicated. You can do this any time you want, any hour of the day.

The main character in the story is the spirit of a Jewish girl who in real life Rutkauskas rescued.

Two couples also figure in the story, one Lithuanian, one Jewish. Jews, their history and buildings are an indivisible part of early 20th century Kaunas which, unfortunately, we have almost erased from memory.

Full story in Lithuanian here.