Museum of the Aviation Pioneer in Lithuania Aleksandras Griskevicius (Mazeikiai district)

Address
10 Akmenes St., LT-89490, Vieksniai, Mazeikiai district.
Telephone nr. +370-443-36377.
The museum was opened in 1981.

Museum 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 Vieksniai area. Besides, the exposition of the Birziskos, which is about the merits of this family for Lithuania, is sojourning in the museum. After the restoration of the Birziskos’ homeland the exposition will be transferred to their home.
The founders of the museum are the ethnographer Apolonija Sriubaite and the pedagogue Algirdas Gedvilas who is presently the museum’s superintendent.

Aleksandras Griskevicius
Aleksandras Griskevicius is considered to be the pioneer of aviation in Lithuania. He was born in a family of ruined noblemen in Krakiai surroundings, Kedainiai district. He was an educated person, knew Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and several Western European languages. During his spare time, A. Griskevicius took an interest in the flight theory, philosophy; he had designed several projects of an aircraft. One of these projects, described in a book ‘Zemaiciu 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.Griskevicius himself constructed his flying devices and tested them ineffectively.
In 1860 A.Griskevicius wrote a philosophical work of 285 pages ‘Gamtos tikrove arba matematines isvados apie dievybe, siela ir tikejimo paslaptis trumpais, populiariais pasnekesiais’ (‘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.Griskevicius had settled in his wife’s native town Vieksniai. It is supposed that during his stay in Vieksniai he continued to construct and test aircrafts. A. Griskevicius died on November 11th in 1863. He is buried in the old Vieksniai cemetery. A.Griskevicius’ tombstone monument (built in 1980) was created by I.Barauskaite, an architect of the Institute of Monument Preservation and Restoration.
In the house where A.Griskevicius resided during his last years a memorial museum has been established.