House of the Signatories

The House of the Signatories (Lithuanian: Signatarų namai, previously known as Sztral's House) is a Lithuanian historic landmark on Pilies Street, Vilnius, where on February 16, 1918, the Act of Independence of Lithuania was signed by twenty members of the Council of Lithuania.

In the late 19th century, Kazimierz Sztral renovated the building in a Neo-Renaissance style after a project by a Russian architect Alexiey Polozov.

[1] The cafe, frequented by local high society, was immortalised by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński in his Vilnian Elegies.

[2] Although closed down following the city's return to Lithuania, it was soon reopened and housed the "Ksantypa" cabaret run by artists who fled from Nazi-occupied part of Poland, among them Janusz Minkiewicz, Mieczysław Szpakiewicz, Stanisława Perzanowska, Marta Mirska and Światopełk Karpiński.

Soon after Lithuania regained independence in 1990 from the Soviet Union, the house was dedicated as a museum, and opened to the public in 2000.