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The secular Soviet state was well known for its elaborate ‘socialist rites’ instituted for life’s milestones, from birth through marriage to death. Actions traditionally carried out in a sacral space were rather quickly assigned to ‘consumer services’, and were replaced by the civil registration of the new-born child, the secular wedding and funeral rite. The challenge, therefore, was to create secular spaces with their own dramaturgy, designed to offer appropriate settings for weddings and funerals while avoiding any kind of religious presence. However, special purpose-designed types of buildings began to spread out in many Soviet republics only from the 1970s onwards. Soviet Lithuania in this context played the role of an experimental place since the first purpose built Wedding Palace in Vilnius (1968–1974) and Funeral Palace in Vilnius (1968–1975) served as prototypes of functional type, modern aesthetics and symbols for the entire Soviet Union. From the social point of view these buildings are seen as sub
