Aurimas Širvys Bio

Aurimas Širvys is an architect in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. He devotes much of his time to preserving the historical architectural heritage of Lithuania. In 2012, he was invited to participate in a program to study the history and architecture of two synagogues in Belarus. Since then, he has been actively involved in collecting historical material about the design of more than fifty of Lithuania’s past and present synagogues, including the heritage of wooden synagogues.

He has participated in projects to restore ten synagogues in Lithuania and created a set of three-dimensional representations of “lost and disappearing” wooden synagogues which has been displayed at various venues in Lithuania. An exhibition of Mr. Širvys’ photographs of Eastern European synagogues was displayed in Vilnius and he has given lectures on the development of the architecture of Lithuanian synagogues.

Mr. Širvys has also worked with historian and archaeologist Žygimantas Buržinskas to analyze the architectural heritage of 14 Lithuanian villages (“shtetls”) in Lithuania, studying their manor homes, monasteries, churches, synagogues, town meeting halls, and other culturally significant structures. He frequently advises municipalities on measures that can be taken to restore existing structures and to preserve the memory destroyed buildings, such as through the creation of informational signs placed on the sites of such structures. In his “free time,” he has photographed over 2,000 historical structures throughout Europe.
 

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