The subject matter of the research is architectural competitions in Lithuania to begin with their origin (end of the 18th century) up to the present times (2010). The dissertation aims at disclosing the significance of architectural competitions to art of architecture in Lithuania, improvement of architects’ professional excellence and public meaning of competitive selection, as well as analyzing the preconditions for improvement of the competition system. The following tasks have been raised and formulated: 1. to explore the genesis of architectural competitions and review the historical development of architectural competitions in Lithuania starting from its origins to the present day; 2. based on specific examples of architectural competitions in Lithuania, to analyze the main types of competitions and their purposes, disclose their peculiarities and meaning; 3. to perform the critical analysis on organization process of architectural competitions in Lithuania (preparation of requirements, rules, involvement of society to the design process and evaluation) and further existence and quality of the competition winning design projects; and 4. to disclose the peculiarities of public, architectural and professional significance of creative competitions. The dissertation has an introduction, three chapters with separate summaries, general conclusions, lists of bibliography and author’s publications on the dissertation subject, list of illustrations and two appendices. The first chapter of the dissertation analyzes the origins of the creative competition phenomenon, historical development in Lithuanian, identifies the trends characteristic for separate historical periods. The second chapter explores the typological structure of creative competitions; the entirety of Lithuanian competitions is classified and characterized according to dominating aspiration, such as representative, utilitarian, innovational and/or of alternative ideas. The third chapter of the dissertation analyzes theoretical preconditions for competition improvement and influence of creative competitions on Lithuanian art development. 4 articles on the research subject were published in science journals referred to in acknovvledged international databases, 2 scientific article in reviewed publication, 2 scientific article in other publication and 8 articles in specialized professional publications in Lithuania and abroad. The research results have been discussed at 5 scientific conferences.