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 Museum
of the Aviation Pioneer Aleksandras Griškevičius
Contacts
Address: Akmenės g. 10, LT-89490, Viekšniai, Mažeikių rajonas.
Information for Visitor
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday 9–17;
Saturday 9–16.
Admissiom:
adults – 2 Lt;
children, pupils, students
– 1 Lt.
Guided tours:
adults – 15 Lt;
children, pupils, students – 10 Lt.
 Exposition
The museum exposition includes the models of the planes ‘Garlekys’ and ‘Lituanika’
(the latter overflew the Atlantic Ocean in 1933), a number of artists’
creations, the information about the development of aviation in Lithuania
(displayed in museum cases). The total number of the exhibits is over 100;
the museum’s area stretches for 445 square metres. In the adjacent rooms of
the same building, an ethnographical exposition is displayed. The exposition
demonstrates the daily house life, customs and traditions of the people of
Viekšniai area. Besides, the exposition of the Biržiškos, which is about the
merits of this family for Lithuania, is sojourning in the museum. After the
restoration of the Biržiškos’ homeland the exposition will be transferred to
their home.
The founders of the museum are the ethnographer Apolonija Sriubaitė and the
pedagogue Algirdas Gedvilas who is presently the museum’s superintendent.
Aleksandras Griškevičius
 Aleksandras
Griškevičius is considered to be the pioneer of aviation in Lithuania. He
was born in a family of ruined noblemen in Krakiai surroundings, Kėdainiai
district. He was an educated person, knew Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and
several Western European languages. During his spare time, A. Griškevičius
took an interest in the flight theory, philosophy; he had designed several
projects of an aircraft. One of these projects, described in a book
‘Žemaičių garlekys’ (‘A Samogitian Aircraft’, published in 1851), was
planned to be a propeller-driven combination of an aerostat and a steam
engine with horizontal wings. It is known that A .Griškevičius himself
constructed his flying devices and tested them ineffectively.
In 1860 A. Griškevičius wrote a philosophical work of 285 pages ‘Gamtos
tikrovė arba matematinės išvados apie dievybę, sielą ir tikėjimo paslaptis
trumpais, populiariais pašnekesiais’ (‘The Reality of Nature Or Mathematical
Findings About God, Spirit and the Secrets of Faith Written in Short,
Popular Conversations’) in Polish. The czar government had taken legal
proceedings against the author because of his work that propagated
anti-religious information.
Having lost his job, A. Griškevičius had settled in his wife’s native town
Vieksniai. It is supposed that during his stay in Viekšniai he continued to
construct and test aircrafts. A. Griskevicius died on November 11th in 1863.
He is buried in the old Vieksniai cemetery. A. Griškevičius’ tombstone
monument (built in 1980) was created by I. Barauskaitė, an architect of the
Institute of Monument Preservation and Restoration.
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