Discover Lithuania: Land of Crosses and Legends

1. Lithuania My Country Kursenai Kindergarten “Buratinas” January 2012 Prepared by Violeta Kumziene

2. Lithuania . Kursenai

3. District of Šiauliai Kuršėnai

4. National costume

5. Our currency

6. Capital Vilnius largest city of Lithuania catedral

7. Gediminas castle VILNIUS Gediminas castle.In the reign of Gediminas (1316–1341) wooden castle of Vilnius was fortified by some brick walls. In the times of Vytautas (1392–1430) a brick castle was built. Its remains survived until the modern times.

8. The castle of Trakai The Island castle of TRAKAI. Finished in 1409 the Island castle of Trakai was the strongest and the most magnificent castle in the Lithuanian State. It became the main residence of Vytautas at once.

9. There are some ballooning clubs in Lithuania. It is very expensive entertainment, but very exciting and romantic. You can be taught by instructors how to drive hot air balloon or just admire beautiful Lithuanian landscape.

10. The hill of crosses (Siauliai) There are claims that the first crosses were planted in the Middle Ages, but the first written record is from 1850, and may refer to crosses planted in memory of victims of the 1831 rebellion against the Russians, whose burial places were unknown by loved ones. The number of crosses swelled after another rebellion in 1863. In the early 1900s, when we next have a record to refer to, there were about 150 crosses. Numbers dropped a bit after the First World War (we don’t know why – cross casualty?) but were up to around 400 by the late 1930s. Then things really took off. By 1961, when the Soviet government of the time decided that religious sentiment had gone a bit too far, they had over 5,000 crosses to contend with. This they did with the aid of a bulldozer. In an attempt to stop crosses reappearing, the area was guarded by the KGB, rumoured to be infected with various ‘epidemics’, and there were even discussions about flooding it. But the crosses kept reappearing. Despite all the restrictions, the bulldozers had another 1,200 crosses to crush in 1975. Thus the Hill of Crosses now is not just a site of religious significance, but a bristling testament to Lithuanian defiance and independence.

11. Kursiu Nerija The Curonian Spit is a narrow sand peninsula of 98 km of length, which divides the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. This is a fragile nature, which requests a considerable and constant attention. According to the origin and composition the Spit is comprised of natural and human-made complex sections of protective dune-ridge. These various forms were created by waves, wind and the human, which were also helped by the sand grains of various sizes, flora and its distribution, angles and height of dune-ridge‘s slopes, and  position of the ridge according to the coastline and its inner composition.

12. Wind lane Dunes Sands Grobstas Strict Nature Reserve Dunes

13. Lithuanian Sea Museum

14. Aquarium European wels Clown triggerfish Piranhas Barbel Green moray

15. The History of navigation Marine fauna Fisherman’s farmstead Veteran vessels

16. Dolphinarium The dolphinarium in Klaipeda was opened in 1994, it is the only dolpinarium in the Eastern Baltic. The dolphins and the Californian sea lions perform in the shows. They are trained by trainers of sea mammals. It is a rare profession, which requires thorough knowledge of animal physiology and psychology, and at last but not least, love. The basic aim of staging performances with dolphins and Californian sea lions is to educate the public, to acquaint the visitors and especially the young people in a most attractive way with these animals which are one of the most interesting sea animals, with peculiarities of their life and behavior, to foster love to the animals and sense of responsibility towards the living nature and the necessity to preserve it. Every summer, merry water festivals are held in the dolphinarium on weekend evenings in which a group of synchronized swimming, dancers and acrobats perform. These are really exotic shows.

17. Sea Bridge. In the end of XIX c holidaymakers have a lot of inconveniences to reach Palanga. From Liepaja or Klaipeda they were traveling to Palanga by cartages. Then Tiskevicius decided to build up landing stage for ships. The building of landing stage included 1884-1888. Merchant - passenger vessel "Phoenix" was caring holidaymakers, goods, food from Liepaja. But every time after storms the landing stage was covered with sand and after few years it was not usable for navigation. From 1892 the bridge became favorite place for promenades. Time, sea waves and wind devastate this construction. In 1997 was built new bridge in 470m length. Again everybody speeds to say good-bye for sun… Palanga

18. Palanga's Botanical Garden. This landscaped garden is one of the prettiest, best preserved, and best kept parks in Lithuania's coastal region. In 1897 Count Felix Tiskevicius founded this park around the palace built the same year. The park was designed by the famous French landscape architect and botanist Eduard Fransua Andre, (1840 - 1911), who spent three summers in Palanga with his son Rene Eduard Andre (1867 - 1942) supervising the park's construction. They were assisted by the Belgian gardener Buyssen de Coulon.

19. Amber museum Baltic amber is fossil resin produced by pine trees which grew in Northern Europe about 50 million years ago. The resin was washed out of the forest floor by large rivers and transported south towards the sea. In the course of time the resin was transformed to amber due to processes of polymerisation and oxidation.  The Palanga Amber Museum - Branch of the Lithuanian Art Museum - was established on August 3, 1963. It is housed on the estate of Count Feliksas Tiskevicius (1865-1932). The estate, designed by German architect Franc Schwechten (1841-1924), was built in 1897. The Palanga Botanical Gardens, designed by the landscape architect Eduard Francois Andre (1840-1911), surround the Estate. 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 Palanga Amber Museum is a branch of the Lithuanian Art Museum. About 8 million people have come to visit the Palanga Amber Museum. The Museum is becoming famous for its traditional cultural events. For 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. 

20. Kernave The central hillfort (called the Aukuro Hillfort) was the duke’s estate, the remaining four carried out the functions of defence of the duke’s castle and the town. In written sources Kernavė was first mentioned in 1279 in the Livonian Chronicle and the Herman Vartberg Chronicle, where it was described as Traidenis’, the Great Duke’s of Lithuania, estate (1269-1282). At that time Kernavė was the most significant economic-political centre of Lithuania – the first capital of Lithuania. These were Kernavė’s palmy days.  In 1390 Kernavė was burnt in an attack by Crusaders. After the fire the wooden town and castles have never been rebuilt, people moved out from the Pajauta Valley and started settling on the upper terrace, in the present territory of the settlement. In time, the remains of the old town were hidden from spectators’ eyes under a thick alluvial deposit stratum, which was an ideal preservative of the entire organics and, simultaneously, the traces of townspeople’s – inhabitants of the Lithuanian Troy. Unlike in Vilnius, in Kernavė cultural strata remained absolutely untouched from the end of 14th century, so they perfectly preserved their inestimable information.

21. In the shade of firs and pines Soviet monuments are located there, which were taken down in 1989. The monuments were brought here from different Lithuanian cities and towns. Museum “Grūto parkas” (Druskininkai)

22. Europos Parkas was founded in 1991 by Lithuanian sculptor Gintaras Karosas. The exhibition spans an area of 55 hectares and is visited by over 60,000 people annually. The goal of the museum is to give an artistic significance to the geographic centre (as determined by the French National Geographic Institute in 1989) of the European continent and to present the best of Lithuanian and international modern art achievements. The park of Europe

23. The first Adventure park in Lithuania was established in 2005 by the Bear’s streamlet (about 150 km from Kursenai). There are different types of bridges, ladders, swings here, all of them are overhead in trees. Visitors can have here unexpected impressions and can try their strength.

24. KURTUVĖNAI HORSE TOURISM CENTRE AND RIDING SCHOOL In Kurtuvenai (about 30 km from Kursenai) you can visit Horse tourism center and Riding school. There are a lots of beautiful horses. Everybody can ride a horse, if he wants or just watch them.

25. It doesn’t matter is it snowing or heating, sculls are beautiful tool of making adventures. Sculls trek is the best way to relax and find yourself like piece of nature. There are a lot of rivers, streamlets and lakes in Lithuania, so you can choose whichever you want.

27. Ourchildren’slettersforfriendsfromabroad

32. We hope you'll like our country Come and visit us www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYuP3VDSrQk www.regular.neregetalietuva.lt/nuotraukos.php