History

The history of the Lithuanian postal service dates back to the XVI century. On 11 July 1562 the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the King of Poland Sigismund Augustus charged Christoph von Taxis with organising a regular postal conveyance route Vilnius-Krakow-Vienna-Venice. Letters posted in Krakow reached Vilnius in seven days.

The postal service became even more important in 1583 when the King of Poland Stephen Batory established public postal service with uniform charges, guaranteeing everyone equal access to the service. This was the beginning of regular mail conveyance.

On 16 November 1918, the Minister of Finance, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Lithuania Martynas Yčas signed the decree on the establishment of the Lithuanian Post Board. This date designated the beginning of the official history of Lithuania Post.

During World War II Lithuania’s communications, postal transport, and railway routes were destroyed. The country’s communications became completely dependent upon Moscow.

The first series of the Lithuanian postage stamps “Angelas” (Angel) was issued on 7 October 1990.

On 17 December 1991 the decision was made to reorganise management of Lithuanian communications – to separate postal communications from electrical communications by setting up two separate public enterprises, i.e. “Lietuvos paštas” and “Lietuvos telekomas”.

In 2006, the enterprise was reorganised into the Public Limited Company Lietuvos paštas.

By the end of 2012, AB Lietuvos paštas comprised 729 access points providing postal services – 702 stationary post offices and 133 points of service visited by the company’s mobile post offices.