Monument to poet Joseph Brodsky

In Palanga, a wooden bridge over the Rąžė River near J. Basanavičiaus Street is dedicated to the memory of Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky, a Russian poet of Jewish origin. The bridge is decorated with an information board with commemorative symbols (sculptor Mindaugas Šnipas). Brodsky had fond feelings for two Lithuanian cities: Vilnius and Palanga. He visited the resort twice, in 1966 and 1968. Enchanted by Palanga, he wrote several poems reflecting the seaside landscape and famous places in the resort. He dedicated one of his poems in the cycle “Lietuviškas divertismentas” (Lithuanian Divertissement) to Palanga. Brodsky was born on May 24, 1940, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Due to his dissident views, he was forced to leave the Soviet Union in 1972. He moved to the US, where he worked as a visiting professor at various universities. In 1981, he settled in New York. In 1987, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm. The poet died on January 28, 1996. He is buried in the San Michele Cemetery in Venice, the city he loved.