Lithuanian museums

Lithuanian museums deserve a rapt attention just taking into account the only fact that many of them are the only ones in their kind. It refers to the Museum of Devils in Kaunas and the Marine museum in Klaipeda and the House-museum of Lithuanian Genius, an artist and a composer Churlenis in Druskininkai.

Generally speaking it’s time to open a special tour in Lithuania which will offer tourists only the museum attendance. Well many of them are not only the buildings with more or less typical set of archaeological finds and portraits of medieval grandees; they represent the whole theatre in the open air. For example a well-known museum of Lithuanian way of life which is situated in a not very big place called Rumshisheks. The museum consists of several farmsteads and fully represents Lithuanian way of life of the beginning of the 19-th century. All the houses of the museum are the authentic buildings; the age of some of them exceeds 200 years.

A good example is Grutskiy Park. Being unique in its kind this museum complex as many Lithuanians think is dedicated to a tragic period of entering the USSR. The Lithuanians should be given their due. Taking into account their disregard to the former Soviet Union they perceive that period though not as a pleasant but still as an indispensable part of their own history. In this very context Grutskiy Park is simultaneously an irony towards everything Soviet and a good ground not to forget what the Soviet way of life represented. The monuments of the epoch of Socialism gathered in one place represent the exposition of the park. Here there are several types of works of “Soviet realism”: beginning from the statuettes to Lenin and Marx to the posters and even an armored train.

It’s difficult to imagine Lithuania without a museum of amber. By the way there are several such museums in the country. But as a rule two basic ones are singled out. The exposition of the first and the main one is situated in Palanga in the former castle of the earl Tyshkevich which is situated on the territory of the Botanic Garden. The second museum belongs to private owners and is situated in the resort village Nida in the Baltic states, in the house where the classic of German literature Thomas Mann lived.

In other words except for captivating expositions traditional museums are considered to be the main ones. Here we refer the National museum of Lithuania (a vast collection of architectural monuments and things telling about the history of the country) and Lithuanian National Art museum with a rich collection of painting and sculptures by Lithuanian and foreign masters. The museum of amber in Palanga, the museum of Clocks in Klaipeda and the museum of Miniatures of the resort Uodkrante are included to the union “Lithuanian National Art museum”.