Smithery Museum

Lithuania Minor History Museum

"The Smith’s Work Museum was established in 1979, opened in 1992, near the old marketplace, in the place of the former smithy of F. Grimm, the smith from Klaipeda. Not far off another smithy is still standing and operating after restoration - that of G. Katzke, the famous smith master from Klaipeda. Most exhibits are crosses, fences, gates from cemeteries of Lithuania Minor and old Klaipeda, collected and saved from destruction by D. Varkalys, the metal restorer, as well as weathercocks characteristic only of the harbor. The Museum exposes the remaining authentic working tools of G. Katzke, household articles and tools made by smiths, pagan memorials out of metal from Lithuania Minor, horse sabots etc. In the operating smithy one may purchase original blacksmith’s articles." (Museums of Lithuania)

 

Klaipeda Clock Museum

Fax.: (+370 46) 410414

Info Telefon: (+370 46) 410415
Besucher-Email: klm@takas.lt
http://www.muziejai.lt/klm/index.htm...

Lithuanian Art Museum

Tuesday to Saturday 12.00-18.00.
Sunday and and National Holiday Eve 12.00-17.00.

Klaipeda Clock Museum was opened in 1984 in a renovated 19th century's building. Its exposition consists ot two parts. The first part introduces the development of the construction of time measuring devices from older times until today; originals, models or reconstructed copies of ancient calendars, sun, water, fire and sand clocks, mechanical time measuring devices; exhibits which show the change of clock forms from Renaissance to modern styles. Together with the clocks from different countries, characteristic furniture and artistic works are selected and displayed according to particular periods. A part of a 19th century park is still preserved near the museum and a large "quator" clock is on display in the closed courtyard. A vertical sun clock showing the time of Klaipeda latitude is mounted on one wall and the monumental composition "The Sun's Path Through Constellations" - on another. A working belfry is located in the old post office building near the museum and on weekends one can listen to concerts of carillon (bell) music. Music festivals, poetry, theatre, dancing eve and other events also take place in Clock Museum courtyard.

 

Pranas Domsaitis Gallery

Tel.: (370 46) 410412

Info Telefon: (+370 46) 410416
Besucher-Email: kpgdomsaitis@takas.lt
http://www.ldm.lt/PDG/Index_en.htm...

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

Tuesdays – Saturdays 12.00–18.00 h
Sundays and evenings before National Holidays 12.00–17.00 h.
The museum is closed on Monday and over National holidays.

"Artist Pranas Domsaitis ( Franz Domscheit) was well known in Germany after World War I and in South Africa after World War II. But it has been only in recent decades that the Lithuanian public learned more about him, when the bulk of his creative output came under the guardianship of the Lithuanian Foundation /USA/.
Domsaitis, from childhood maturing in the blend of neighboring cultures, is a classic artist of the borderlands. He absorbed international influences, yet he maintained a strong national identity. In one letter Domsaitis spoke about his ancestry: 'But Lithuanian blood does not decieve, just as my paintings are truly Lithuanian. '
Until the age of 27 Domsaitis lived in his birthplace where he began his creative activity as a self-taught artist while he helped his father tend the family farm.
Trough the intercession of famous German artist Max Liebermann, Dom§aitis was accepted to the Konigsberg Art Academy (1907). At the beginning of his creative path, Domsaitis was influenced by German artists.
Domsaitis experienced a very strong impact from his visit to Edward Munch in Norway. Domsaitis was similarly affected by the French expressionist Georges Rouault, especially in religious themes.
His first exhibition in the Gallery Ferdinand Moller in 1919 attracted critical attention and his works began to be added to various collections in Konigsberg, Stettin and Lubeck, and the National Gallery in Berlin acquired an 'Adoration'.
During 1921–1937 he participated in group exhibitions in Germany (Berlin, Essen, Hamburg, Konigsberg, Breslau, Stettin, Munich), Austria, Switzerland, Romania and Turkey.
When political and social conditions changed in Germany, the time of creative enthusiasm and stability came to an end. In 1937 there began throughout Germany the confiscation of art works that did not conform to the values of the official ideology. The final accent was an exhibition opened in Munich in the summer of 1937 under the name Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). Domsaitis shared with Nolde, Kirchner, Muller, Dix and others, the most important artists of the day, the miseries and honor of having his work in the exhibition of 'Degenerate Art' in 1937 in Munich.
It was thereafter impossible for Domsaitis to exhibit further in Germany, and began 1938 he sometimes lived at Vorarlberg, Austria and signed his picture from that time onward with his Lithuanian name – Pranas Domsaitis. In 1946 he participated in a refugee exhibition in Bregenz, the first time his work was represented as Lithuanian.
In 1949 his wife was appointed senior lecturer in singing at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, a country, he had dreamed of as a child. New landscape, new color, made Domsaitis final South Africa period a time of renewal and confirmation as his art grew simpler and even stronger in design. His painting took on a melancholy stillness and transcendental premonitions. His landscapes, common human figures are filled with deep symbolism.
Especially important is the deeply experienced archetypes of his work – the journey and the themes of travelling – expressed realistically as well as expressions of Biblical studies.
This late breakthrough in the artist's creative powers amazed South African art critics, who were being invited each year to several personal exhibitions of Domsaitis' paintings. In 1964 Domsaitis received, for his achievements in the field of artistic creation, one of the most prestigious South African awards – the Artists of Fame and Promise Award.
Domsaitis died in Cape Town in 1965 at the age of 85, and in 1966 the National Gallery in Cape Town held a memorial exhibition of over two hundred of his works which later was shown in other museums in South Africa.
It is fortunate that the harvest of Domsaitis long creative growth, which matured in foreign lands, in large part has returned to the area of Lithuanian art.
In 1989, when Lithuania began his journey to independence, the Lithuanian Foundation transferred the first of Domsaitis works to Lithuania. In the course of several years the Foundation donated a collection of 528 of artist's works to the Lithuanian Art Museum.
On July 26, 2001 the Pranas Domsaitis Gallery was opened in Klaipeda. It is home to the greater part of the collection as well as to the
Pranas Domsaitis Culture Center, whose goals are to collect, study and disseminate information about the artist's life and work. (e-mail: kpgdomsaitis@takas. lt)
Although the collection held at the Lithuanian Art Museum (Domsaitis Gallery is the branch of Lithuanian Art Museum) is the largest in the world, it is not the only one.
There are paintings by Domsaitis at the – M. K. Ciurlionis National Museum of Art (Kaunas, Lithuania);
Lithuanian Foundation, Lemont, IL, USA;
East Prussian Land Museum, Luneburg, Germany;
East German Museum–Gallery, Regensburg, Germany;
National Gallery, Berlin, Germany;
National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Republic of Zimbabwe;
South Africa Republic – South Africa National Gallery, Pretoria Art Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art gallery and many
others...
Many of Domsaitis' works are held in private collections in Southern Africa,
Germany, Austria, Canada, Australia, the United States, Turkey.
Unknown is the fate of those pictures which the museums and galleries of Lubeck, Munich, Hamburg, Stettin, Breslau, Hannover, Konigsberg acquired before World War II.
"Ich bin doch immer unterwegs" ("I am always on the way") –these words spoken in German by Pranas Domsaitis on his deathbed are constantly repeated by most of the authors who write about this son of Lithuania.
These last word of the artist may be used to characterize his creative path, marked by an intensive search for perfect expression, the only path that gave a tangible result – a spiritual and material legacy attesting to this man's existence on earth. Domsaitis was an artist brought up by the cultures of two peoples living next to each other – the Germans and the Lithuanians." (Museums of Lithuania)

 

Curonian Spit National Park Information Centre

Fax.: +370-46-402257

Info Telefon: +370-46-402256
Besucher-Email: info@nerija.lt, kinfo@takas.lt
http://www.nerija.lt/...

May – September:
Wednesdays – Sundays from 11.00 to 18.00 h.
June – August:
Tuesdays – Sundays from 11.00 to 18.00 h.

"The exposition is laid out in the restored buildings in Smiltyne. It tells about one of the most beautiful and peculiar places of nature in Lithuania - its geological development, geographic peculiarities, archaeology, formation of landscape, flora and fauna." (Museums of Lithuania)

Picture: Part of the Curonian Spit National Park
 

Klaipeda Art Exhibition Hall

Fax.: +370-46-313691

Info Telefon: +370-46-313691
http://www.parodurumai.lt/...

"The Klaipeda Art Exhibition Hall stands out from the other exhibition halls in the city because of its pluralism. It tries to offer a different spectrum of artistic works, from primitive to the most sophisticated modern artistic manifestation. Lithuanian and foreign art exhibitions, meetings with authors, exhibition discussions, concerts, performances, press conferences, seminars, and presentations are conducted in six exhibition halls." (Museums of Lithuania)
 

Lithuanian Sea Museum

Tel.: +370-46-490754
Fax.: +370-46-490750

Info Telefon: +370-46-490740
Besucher-Email: ljm@muziejus.lt

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

From October 1st to April 30th
Museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays only from 10.30 to 16.30 h.

The museum collections include the sea fauna and insects, archaeological, ethnographic and iconographical items, coins, documents, ships and their equipment.
The collection of the museum consists of 60 062 items kept.
In the main stock - 36 425 items.
In the supplementary stock - 23 627 items.
The biggest collection - preparations of sea fauna (cockleshells, corals, crustaceans, echinoderms, sea birds, fishes, sea mammalia). There are 19 787 items kept in it.
Other collections of the museum: collections of geology, archaeology, ethnography, numismatics, cartography, ship technique, the written language, photo-material, philately.
Special stock of the Lithuanian Maritime Museum - animate exhibits: sea mammalia, birds, fishes.
The stock of animate exhibits consists of 957 animals. Freshwater fishes of the Baltic sea and Lithuanian rivers and lakes make the greatest part of the collection - 800 items, corralling fishes - 35 items, tropic freshwater fishes - 78 items, colony of penguins - 21 penguin, sea mammalia (gray Baltic seals, sea lions of the North and Californian seas etc.) - 20 items.
Exposition
Sea mammals and birds exposition
Open air pools inhabited by Baltic seals, sea lions and penguins Seals and penguins are breeding successfully.
Aquarium
31 tank with Lithuanian freshwater, the Baltic Sea and the tropical seas fish.

Marine fauna exposition
The Baltic Sea geography, geology, fauna, an abundant collection of seashells and corals.

Navigation history exposition
Old fishing vessels, ethnographic farmstead of fisherman, models of ships, archaeological finds, document, anchors.

Dolphinarium
Hall containing 1 000 seats for the visitors and 1800 m³ capacity pool for the dolphins and sea lions shows.
Exhibitions
Thematic exhibitions from the collections of the museum are arranged (history of shipping, sea fauna) as well as scientific research exhibitions and those of photographs.

 

Juodkrante Exhibition Hall

Info Telefon: +370-469-53323.

Lithuanian Art Museum

Opened only during the summer season.
June to August:
Tuesday to Saturday 12.00–18.00.
Sunday and National holidays’ eve 12.00–17.00 h.
The Exhibition Hall is closed on Mondays and National holidays.

"The Exhibition Hall was opened in 1982.
The gallery features works of diverse artists from Lithuania and abroad." (Museums of Lithuania)
 

Juodkrante Environmental Monitoring Laboratory

Info Telefon: +370-469-53151
Besucher-Email: muzzoo@takas.lt

Tadas Ivanauskas Zoology Museum

Fisherman's Ethnographic homestead

Info Telefon: +370-469-52372

"A homestead having suffered from ice floes of the Curonian Bay was given to the Neringa Museum of History in 1974. A homestead of the end of the XIX century - beginning of the XX century was arranged in it. There are two buildings here: a dwelling house and a farm building. A kitchen of a dwelling house and three rooms are furnished authentically. Decorated chairs, set of furniture of the sleeping room, trousseau chest with painted ornaments is especially interesting. Bride's and silver wedding's little wreaths are displayed on the walls." (Museums of Lithuania)
 

Kursiu Nerija National Park

Fax.: (+370 469) 51 224

Info Telefon: (+370 469) 51 224
Besucher-Email: knnp@nerija.lt
http://www.nerija.lt/en/...

"Covering an area of 18 thousand hectares, the Kursiu Nerija National Park was designated to protect the unique scenic beauty of the Kursiu Nerija, a narrow peninsula separating the Kursiu Marios Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The peninsula, a sandy stretch of land extending 98 kilometers, with the width varying from 400 meters to 3.8 kilometers, was formed some five to six thousand years ago, as sand accumulated in the shallower waters along the Baltic coast.
The sea winds shifted the sand, creating a range of large sand dunes stretching for about 70 kilometers from Smiltyne to Sarkuva. The largest of the dunes, such as the Sklandytoju, the Angiu Kalno, and the Urbo Kalno ones are up to 1000 meters high and provide a charming view of the sea, the lagoon and the green forests.
Up to the 15th century the spit was covered by both deciduous and coniferous forests. Later, however, large portions of them were felled by the axe. This lead to severe sand shifting. 14 villages were swallowed up by the moving sands. It was in 1825 that G.D. Kuvertas started the first reforestation project to try to stop the sand. At the present time life on the spit is protected by about 7 thousand hectares of forests, most of them pine-woods.
The settlements situated on the spit boast of original architecture, typical to this region. In Juodkrante, the first stop on the road from the northern tip Nida, the peninsula's administrative centre, one can see a number of old fishermen's houses that are protected as architectural monuments. The other settlements before Nida are Pervalka and Preila, typical fishing villages. Nida is the largest and most beautiful of the Lithuanian settlements on the spit.
The Kursiu Nerija National Park stands out among the other parks of Lithuania. Because of ecological concerns, access to the spit is restricted. Visitors can obtain information and book a guided tour of the park in Klaipeda, Smiltynes 18." (Ministry of Tourism)