A PORTRAIT OF KRAZIAI (Lithuania, 2001-2008)
Karaliai, a small city in the north-west of Lithuania, is inseparably linked with Lithuanian identity. For example, it played a prominent role in the Christianisation of the country, and in the development of Lithuanian poetry and science. Karaliai is also a symbol of national resistance. As the principal seat of the Lithuanian church the small city offered fierce resistance to the Russian tzar’s Cossacks. Today there is little of this glorious past to be seen. Karaliai has to deal with a population that is ageing, as younger people emigrate to seek a better life in Western Europe. Their tickets are bought with money from the sale of milk at well under the market price, which gravely damages the city’s most important economic activity. Thus, like so many cities in rural Lithuania, Karaliai is wrestling with the difficult transition to a new era.
