Diversity of Colors: Lithuania 💖

There are much tourist attractions in the biggest Baltic state. I‘ll try to represent 7 most popular tourist destinations in Lithuania, which is well known by any local private tour guide. However, if you like to explore tourist objects by yourself you can visit Lithuania‘s tourism map on ltoncar.lt and you will find more than 2000 tourism spots, with some information about every single object.

First – Vilnius old town. Vilnius Old Town was included in UNESCO in 1994.Vilnius oldtown is one of the largestmedievalold towns inNorthern Europe - aproximately 3,5 squares kilometres. It is a place where you can enjoy different architectural styles -gothic,renaissance,baroque or neoclassical and even byzantine. It is the only old town in all over the europe, there catholic and orthodox churches, the reformed faith houses, a jewish synagogues,karaite kenesa stands side by side. Not far from Vilnius tatars mosque stands too. Pilies Street is the Old Town's most famous street with number of bars and cafes. Street is connected by too squares: town hall and cathedral square. One of the most famous architectural complexes isVilnius UniversityArchitectural Ensemble. Old Town is encircled with defensive walls. One of the most popular places among townspeople is Vilnius deffence bastion. The wall separated historical suburbs of Vilnius, such asUžupis, which is bohemian spot of Vilnius.

Second – Soviet sculpture park Grutas. From 1989-91, during the restoration of Lithuanian independence, many ideologized monuments from the Soviet times were dismantled and, with the absence of any storage procedure, piled in storehouses and backyards, most frequently on the premises of utility companies. Due to such “preservation”, a lot of monuments were damaged (some of them suffered during dismantling nad others caught the eye of metal traders, etc.), and eventually could have been even totally destroyed, as happened in the neighbouring republics. There were various opinions regarding the future of the dismantled Soviet sculptures. Destroy or preserve? However, Viliumas Malinauskas, established the exposition of soviet sculptures using private funds earned from his family’s mushroom business. The work of preparing the exposition started in early 1999. Grūtas Park was officially opened on 1 April 2001. Soon the park became the most popular tourist destination among foreign tourist from the west.

Grūtas - soviet sculpture park and museum

Third – hill of crosses. It is a locatedabout 12 km north of the town of Šiauliai. The exact origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is unknown, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai moundin the middle of XIX century.Over time, crosses, giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of small rosaries have been brought here by catholic pilgrims. The precise number of crosses is unknown, but it should be about 200 000 in total. During the soviet occupation hill of crosses was demaged, and in 1967 there were no crosses at all. However it did not last long. Soon number of crosses increased of several times, although the Soviet authorities tried to destroy all the crosses several times.

Fourth – Curonian split. Kuršių nerija, the Curonian Spit, is a narrow strip of sand stretching 97 kilometres along the Baltic Sea in western Lithuania. According to the legend, the spit was formed a long time ago by Neringa, a girl giant who poured the sandy peninsula into the Baltic Sea to protect the peaceful bay from the stormy sea and create an embankment for fishermen to live. Thus, today the eastern shores of the Curonian Spit are washed by the Curonian Lagoon, while the Baltic Sea washes the western ones. One part of the 50 kilometres long Curonian Spit belongs to the Republic of Lithuania. The other to the Russian Federation. With its still drifting sand dunes, the sea side forests cherishing the hundred-years-old pine trees, dunes covered by a mountain pines’ carpet planted by hand, white sand beaches and the old fishermen villages, the Curonian split is truly unique! Extra – Klaipėda old town. Klaipeda is gates to the Baltic sea and Curonian split. Town was established by german order in 1262, the oldest town in Lithuania. Most of the buildings that are still standing were built in the 18th-19th centuries. It has structure of planned streets and distinguished for fachwerk architectural style. Here is the old (first) ferry, the Playhouse and Theatre square, Exhibition Hall, the Castle Museum, Lithuania Minor History Museum, Clock Museum, the Evangelical Lutheran church, Ethnic Culture Center, Blacksmith Museum, Market Square. You can visit Lithuanian Sea Museum (Dolphinarium) and Maritime Aquarium in Klaipeda , which is out of old town boundary.

Hill of crosses near Šiauliai

white dunes in Curonian split

Fifth – Palanga amber museum. The Palanga Amber Museum was established on August 3, 1963. It is housed on the estate of Count Feliksas Tiskevicius (1865-1932). The estate palace in neo renaissance style. The Palanga Amber Museum’s exposition takes up 15 rooms. About 4,500 exhibit pieces are found here. Visitors are acquainted with the formation, processing, practical application, and morphological variations of amber. The museum has a wealth of amber pieces with trapped insects or plants, a collection of unique pieces of amber, and examples of fossilized tree resin brought from all over the world. The Museum is becoming famous for its traditional cultural events. For more than 30 summers now the terrace has been home to the Night Serenade concerts. Interesting cultural events and meetings with artists take place in the Fireplace Hall of the estate.

Six – Rumšiškės, an open air lithuanian folk museum. Open Air Museum of Lithuania is a unique and one of the largest (195 ha) open-air ethnographic museums in Europe. It has the biggest quantity of exhibits (140 buildings and over 88 000 mobile exhibits). The museum presents the mode of life, works, and traditions of peasants and townspeople of all Lithuanian ethnographic areas: Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Lithuania Minor. It was established in 1966, in Rumšiškės on a picturesque coast of Kaunas Lagoon. There are fragments of the villages, authentic farms, century-old buildings with flower gardens, orchards and vegetable gardens, with crosses and wooden roofed poles, technical facilities – mills, forges, a fulling-mill and oil-mill lining along 7 km circular route, meandering between forests, meadows and hills. In the centre of the museum there is a fragment of a township with its typical buildings, where pots are shaped, amber and wood works are done and weaving process of linen is presented. The painful past of Lithuanian history is reminded in the sector of Deportation and Resistance. The guided tours, educational programs, calendar feasts, folk group concerts are being organized in the museum. The events calendar and other info can be found on their site. Rumšiškės is my favourite place I want to visit again and again.

Rumšiškės museum - The biggest and oldest open air museum in Lithuania

Amber museum - exhibition of inclusions

White Nida dunes - Curonian split

Grūtas - soviet sculpture park

Seventh – Trakai island castle. Today Trakai History Museum and Island Castle are the objects representing Lithuanian culture and history, there come almost all delegations that are for a visit in Lithuania. The Castle was honoured with the visit paid by Danish Queen Margaret II, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav together with Queen Silvia, the presidents of Hungary, Estonia, Greece, Kazakhstan, China, Latvia, Poland, Macedonia, Portugal, Ukraine and Uzbek; Prime Ministers, Ministers, Ambassadors of many countries paid their visits to Trakai History Museum and Island Castle. When the Peninsular castle was being built, fortified and expanded - at the second half of the 14th century - the Island Castle was begun to be build on one larger island of Galve Lake. At the first stage of building works the Island Castle was of an in-between type – either fenced or conventional – it was of U form and had duke palace and ante palace. It is thoughts that Island Castle was begun by Kestutis and finished in the early 15th century by his son Vytautas. It was meant to be a fortress and it was never conquered by any raiders. Besides the castle, most tourists are fascinated by Karaites (ethnic minorities in Lithuania) traditional dish - kibinas. In a world lives just a few thousand Karaites – several hundreds in Lithuania, while others – in Belarus.

If still have any doubts of visiting Lithuania,do not forget to browse Lithuania‘s tourism map on ltoncar.lt, have a nice trip!