Sights in Eastern & Southern Lithuania
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Grūtas Park
Headline-grabbing Grūtas Park opened amid controversy in 2001. Dubbed Stalin World, this collection of bronze sculptures once stared down Big Brother-style at oppressed Lithuanians in parks and squares countrywide. The former head of a collective farm, Viliumas Malinauskas made his fortune canning mushrooms then won the loan of the hated objects from the Ministry of Culture in 1999 and transformed part of his 2-sq-km estate into a Soviet sculpture park.
Built to resemble a Siberian concentration camp, the park entrance is marked by a Soviet-Polish border crossing with barbed wire, red-and-white (Polish) and red-green (USSR) striped poles. Next to it is a single carriage…
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Ignalina
Ignalina (named after Ignalina region) looks uncannily like Springfield's nuclear power station in The Simpsons and it's just as safe say scientists. Unlike reactors in the West, its one remaining online RMBK reactor - the same design as Ukraine's Chornobyl reactor, which exploded in 1986 - is graphite-cooled and has no containment system. If an accident occurs, there is an increased chance of emissions escaping into the atmosphere. Until 2004 the plant met 80% of Lithuania's energy needs.
Enormous pressure from the EU forced a reluctant Lithuania to shut down the first reactor on 31 December 2004 and pledge to shut the second by the end of 2009. Millions of euros have…
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Spa Vilnius
Druskininkai is spa-riddled. But beware; not all are swish. Step into the wrong place and you could be slapped around by a formidable babushka straight out of a horror movie.
Striking designwise is Spa Vilnius. This spa, with a retro 1950s-style café-bar inside an eight-storey hotel, sports the best indoor swimming pool (filled with local mineral water) and a clutch of baths, including one with seaweed and another with mud. It also offers the full range of massages, including underwater body and Shiatsu foot ones. Scary-sounding things like intestine showers and gynaecologic irrigations are other mineral-water treatments on offer.
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Spa Centras
Druskininkai is spa-riddled. But beware; not all are swish. Step into the wrong place and you could be slapped around by a formidable babushka straight out of a horror movie.
Hot-choice Spa Centras, inside Hotel Druskininkai, has separate bubbling pools, inviting serious wallowers to pick from Dead Sea water, local mineral water or good old tap water. On the massage front, the body pummel with warm honey - a stronger massage than with regular or aromatic oil - wins hands down, although the massage with silky-smooth hot Hawaii stones is heavenly.
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MK Čiurlionis Memorial Museum
Lithuania's finest painter and musician is Varėna-born Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), who spent his childhood in what is now the MK Čiurlionis Memorial Museum. A statue of Čiurlionis stands at the northern end of Kudirkos gatvė. Both the museum and the open-air stage in front of the Cultural Centre host beautiful classical concerts during the 'Druskininkai Summer with Čiurlionis' festival (June to September).
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Druskininkai Spa
Druskininkai is spa-riddled. But beware; not all are swish. Step into the wrong place and you could be slapped around by a formidable babushka straight out of a horror movie. Druskininkai Spa is a peppermint-green, riverside building propped up by marble columns. Pearl, herbal, mineral, mud and even vertical baths are among its wonderful watery delights. It treats a mind-boggling array of diseases - cardiovascular, cutaneous, vestibular, endocrinal etc.
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Marijampolė
The main approach to the Kalvarija-Suwałki road border crossing with Poland is through Marijampolė (population 69,900), the largest southwestern town, with an attractive 1920s train-station building, a neobaroque twin-towered basilica (1824) and a small Old Town. Six bridges cross the Šešupė River, dividing old town from new, and an Ethnographic Museum reflects daily southwestern life a couple of centuries ago.
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Nemunas Sanitorium
To see Druskininkai past and present, follow Čiurlionio gatvė to its northern end and turn right (east) along Liepu gatvė to Laisvės aikštė. On this vast tree-shaded square, one of the USSR's biggest and best, 10-storey Nemunas Sanitorium contrasts with the modern glass façade of Medūna. The pretty, blue, multidomed Russian Orthodox Church in the square's middle dates to the 19th century.
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Fountain of Beauty
The magical powers of local mineral water can be tested at the Dzūkija Fountain inside the Mineralinio Vandems Biuvetė, a round green building with mosaic floor and stained-glass windows on the riverside footpath running along the Nemunas. Continue north to the Fountain of Beauty - one slurp of the shockingly salty water promises eternal beauty.
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Girios Aidas
Heading 2km east of town, Girios Aidas was built to give the impression of floating by using a wooden house supported by a single pedestal. Don't miss the wood carvings of elves and witches, some animated and hidden, in the nature museum here. A wooden sculpture trail runs through the surrounding forest.
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Alytus
Pretty Alytus, snug in a 16km loop of the Nemunas River 72km southeast, is the capital of the southern ethnographic Dzūkija region. Cycling paths are plentiful and the town is a springboard for green forays into the Žuvintas Nature Reserve, an important breeding ground for birds.
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Mineralinio Vandems Biuvetė
The magical powers of local mineral water can be tested at the Dzūkija Fountain inside the Mineralinio Vandems Biuvetė, a round green building with mosaic floor and stained-glass windows on the riverside footpath running along the Nemunas.
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Visagino Country
In mid-August Visaginas bizarrely rocks with a bunch of cowboys - hats, boots and all - who groove on into town from across Europe for the two-day international country music festival, Visagino Country. The tourist office knows all about it.
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Cultural Centre
Both the MK Čiurlionis Memorial Museum and the open-air stage in front of the Cultural Centre host beautiful classical concerts during the 'Druskininkai Summer with Čiurlionis' festival (June to September).
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Windmill Museum
Lovable folk characters fill the Windmill Museum, about 5km southeast of the centre in Naujasodė. Cycle or walk to it along the southbound Sun Path.
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Ancient Bee-keeping Museum
Stripeikiai's Ancient Bee-keeping Museum spins the story of beekeeping through a merry collection of carved wooden statues and hives.
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Russian Orthodox Church
The pretty, blue, multidomed Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of Laisvės square dates to the 19th century.
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Watermill
Ginučiai has a 19th-century Watermill with a small exhibition on its flour- and electricity-producing history.
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Ethnographic Museum
The Ethnographic Museum in Marijampolė reflects daily southwestern life a couple of centuries ago.
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Taurapilio Mound
The park has several ancient piliakalnis (fortification mounds) such as the Taurapilio Mound.
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Wooden Sculpture Trail
Around Lake Lūšiai a Wooden Sculpture Trail depicts Lithuanian folklore.
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Church & Bell Tower
The park's quaint wooden architecture includes a fine Church & Bell Tower.
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Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum commemorates Druskininkai-born sculptor Jacques Lipchitz.
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