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Neringa History Museum
Black-and-white photographs of more rough-and-ready days fill the thoughtfully laid-out displays here, where Nida’s tale from the Stone Age to 1939 is told. Particularly brilliant are the images of local hunters biting a crow’s neck to kill the bird, followed by them a taking a sho
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Museum of Deportation & Resistance
The Museum of Deportation & Resistance documents Lithuanias struggles with foreign oppression, between 1940 and 1990. The spirit of resistance was encompassed by the partisan Forest Brothers, who fought against Soviet occupation. Led by Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas (1909–54), 100,00
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Biržai Castle
As permanent as it looks, its huge, white-washed bastions striking skywards from man-made Lake Širvėna, Biržai Castle was largely restored in the 1980s, having been twice destroyed. First built by Duke Kristupas Radvila in the late 16th century, it was the seat of the Dukes of Birž
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Bernadine Church & Monastery
The massive buttresses and towering walls of this, one of the most impressive churches in Vilnius, are capable of providing defence as well as worship. After successive periods of extension and improvement in the 17th and 19th centuries, it came to a prosaic end when the Soviets co
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Mickiewicz Memorial Apartment & Museum
‘Lithuania, my fatherland…’ is from Poland’s romantic masterpiece Pan Tadeusz . Its Polish author Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855) – muse to Polish nationalists in the 19th century – grew up near Vilnius and studied at the university (1815–19) before being exiled for anti-Russian activi
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Sugihara House
Kaunas-based Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara (1900-86) saved 12,000 Jewish lives between 1939 and 1940, issuing transit visas to stranded Polish Jews who faced being forced into Soviet citizenship. When the Soviets annexed Lithuania and ordered all consulates be shut he asked for
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Astravas Manor
This once-grand Romantic estate, built by Count Mykolas Tiškevičius in 1862, is beautifully sited on the northern shore of Lake Širvėna. Its subsequently been used as a dairy, a sacking factory and a linen warehouse, but restoration of the buildings and classical park in the 50s an
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Horse Museum
Horse lovers – and kids – will want to make the journey 6km north to Lithuania’s only horse museum, in the tiny village of Niūronys. Set out as a traditional farmstead, the museum displays black-and-white photos of horse-drawn transport in Vilnius alongside a fine collection of hor
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St Michael the Archangel Church
This grand early-17th-century chuch, built by the Sapiega family, now houses a wonderful museum of sacral art. The building itself, with its single Gothic nave, coloured-marble high altar and alabaster statuary, is a rare example of late-Renaissance architecture in Vilnius. The exh
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Ventės Ragas Ornithological Station
The first bird-ringing station was established here in 1929, but it was not until 1959 to 1960 that large bird traps were installed. Today, around 100,000 birds pass through the station each migratory period; zigzag, snipe, cobweb and duck traps ensnare birds to be ringed. Two exhi
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Open
The open-air museum consists of re-created 18th- and 19th-century villages representing Lithuania’s main regions (Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Lithuania Minor). Potters, weavers and joiners demonstrate their crafts in the museum workshop and, while the indoors exh
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Presidential Palace
The Bishops of Vilnius’ Palace in the 16th century, this classical edifice now houses the president and chancellery. It gained its current Russian empire style early in the 19th century, and was used both by Napoleon (during his advance on Moscow) and his Russian adversary, General
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Paneriai Museum
This small museum tells some of the shocking story of Paneriai. There are two monuments here: one is Jewish (marked with the Star of David), the other Soviet (an obelisk topped with a Soviet star). From here paths lead to a number of grassed-over pits where, between 1941 and 1944,
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Europos Parkas Sculpture Park
Some 30 minutes north of Vilnius, off the Utena road, is Europos Parkas. Leading contemporary sculptors, including Sol LeWitt and Dennis Oppenheim, show works in wooded parkland (bring mosquito repellent in summer). The exhibitions include the largest sculpture in the world made en
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Tolerance Centre
The Tolerance Center is one of the three main branches of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum. The building, which has been at various stages a refuge, a concert hall and a theatre, exhibits Litvak (Lithuanian Jewish) art and cultural and historical collections. It serves as a helpf
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Kernavė Cultural Reserve
Deemed an ‘exceptional testimony to 10 millennia of human settlements in this region’ by Unesco, which made it a World Heritage site in 2004, Kernavė is a must-see. Thought to have been the spot where Mindaugas (responsible for uniting Lithuania for the first time) celebrated his c
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Pažaislis Monastery
Built by Camaldolese monks in the 17th century, this striking baroque monastery lies 9km east of central Kaunas, on a promontory jutting into the Kauno marios (Kaunas Sea). Given to the Russian Orthodox order by Tsar Alexander in 1831, its a sumptuous if slightly run-down affair wi
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Gediminas Castle & Museum
With its prime hilltop location above the junction of the Neris and Vilnia rivers, Gediminas Castle is the last of a series of settlements and fortified buildings occupying this site since Neolithic times. This brick version, built by Grand Duke Vytautas in the early 15th century,
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Vilnius Cathedral
Known in full as the Cathedral of St Stanislav and St Vladislav, this national symbol occupies a spot originally used for the worship of Perkūnas, the Lithuanian thunder god. Seventeenth-century St Casimir’s Chapel, with its a baroque cupola, coloured marble and frescoes of the sai
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Teatro Aikštė
Little of German Klaipėda remains but there are some restored streets in the oldest part of town wedged between the river and Turgaus aikštė. Pretty Teatro Aikštė is the Old Town focus, dominated by the fine classical-style Drama Theatre (1857). Hitler proclaimed the Anschluss (inc
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