Kristijonas Donelaitis was an evangelical Lutheran priest and pioneer of Lithuanian fiction. To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the poet’s birth, UNESCO added this anniversary to the list of 100 dates important to world culture, education, science and historical memory, and the poem "Metai" was recognized as a masterpiece of European literary heritage. The monument to K. Donelaitis at the Evangelical Lutheran Church was unveiled in 2013 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the literary classic.