vilkaviškis area Museum

Contacts
Address: Paežeriai, LT-70372, Alvito paštas, Vilkaviškio rajonas.
Tel.: (+370 ~ 342) 46 399, (+370 ~ 342) 46 268.
E-mail: vilkaviskiokrastomuziejus@takas.lt
Director – Antanas Žilinskas.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday 10–17;
Saturday, Sunday 11–16.
Visitors of the museum are attended to on the holidays of February 16, March 11, July 6.
Visitors of the museum are not attended to on religious holidays, on January 1, on Mother's day, on the day for commemorating the dead.

Admission:
adults – 1 Lt;
pupils, students, pensioners – 0,5 Lt.

Additional services:
booking of excursions to the museum;
booking of excursions to open stock of the museum;
booking of excursions around Vilkaviškis town and its region;
a possibility to take pictures and makes a film of the displays from the collection of the museum stock;
giving consultations using the material from the collections of the stock about the history of the land and its people;
delivering lectures;
holding discussions;
dealing in publications of the museum.
Services can be booked by telephone (+370 ~ 342) 46 399.

Collection
The museum contains numismatics and archaeological collections, documents, maps, calendars, photographs, antique household articles, and works by folk artists.
Valuables of the nature of the land (geology, flora and fauna), archaeology, history, ethno-culture, fine and applied arts, folk art, memorial material on famous people of the land and its emigrants are accumulated and kept in the museum.
Collections of calendars, philately, textbooks, numismatics are being formed.
According to their type valuables of the museum are classified into 12 groups and 72 subgroups. Those are archaeological finds, natural objects, documents, valuable things, photo-documentary material, numismatics, bonistique, philately and philocarty, the written language, works of art, posters and film archives, photo-archives. 

Expositions

Exposition of the Nature of the Land
Displays of geology, mineralogy, flora and fauna are shown in the exposition.

Exposition of Articles of Ethno-Culture of the Land

Sitting Room of a middle-class Farmer of Sūduva

Exposition of the Signatories' Hall
The gallery of portraits of the herald of the rebirth Dr. Vincas Kudirka (1858–1899) and of Signatories of the Act of Independence of February 16, 1918 painted by local painters.

A Permanent Exposition of the Pre-History and the History of Sūduva and Vilkaviškis Land

Exposition of the History of Churches of the Land and the History of Vilkaviškis Cathedral of the Visit of St. Virgin 

"Lithuania Was Our Fate, Our Grief, Our Faith"
Exposition arranged in the memory of the victims of struggles for freedom and of the Soviet genocide.

Exposition of the History of Emigrants From the Land
Works by emigrants from the land – a painter Magdalena-Birutė Stankūnienė-Stankūnas and a journalist, public man Kazys Karužas – photo-documents; personal things are displayed in two halls of Paežeriai estate palace.

Exhibitions
Occasional, historical, thematic, ethnographic, personal, memorial, literary, folk art exhibitions and exhibitions from the collections are organized in the museum.

Cultural, educational activity
Organization of commemoration of historical anniversaries;
Organization of jubilees of famous people of the land;
Organization of the date of the establishment of the museum;
Organization of the celebration of the International Museum Day;
The museum is visited by participants of "spring of the Poetry" every year;
Events of the Days of the European Heritage have been held in Paezeriai estate palace and the park since 1997;
Annually the museum arranges 1-2 itinerant historical-thematic exhibitions exhibited in schools of Vilkaviskis region.

Departments
Department of registration and keeping of the collections;
Department of cultural-educational and educational work;
Department for researching the collections;
The library and the archive.

Branch Museum

Vincas Kudirka Granary-Museum
Address: Paežerių kaimas, Pilviškiai, Vilkaviškio rajonas.
Tel.: (+370 ~ 342) 46 399, (+370 ~ 342) 46 268.
Visits by arrangement.
The museum was founded in 1965 in Vincas Kudirka's (1858–1899) family farmstead.
The museum became branch museum in 1995.
An exhibition commemorating the leader of the national movement, the author of the Lithuanian national anthem, writer, publicist, translator and doctor Vincas Kudirka, has been mounted in a former granary (built in 1867). The most cherished exhibit is a violin, which once belonged to V. Kudirka.

Public Museums

Alvitas Main School Museum
Address: Maldėnų kaimas, Šeimenos seniūnija, LT-70370, Vilkaviškio rajonas.
Tel. (+370 ~ 342) 60 452.
E-mail: alvitas@takas.lt
More information >

Vištytis Petras Kriaučiūnas Secondary School Local Lore Museum
Address: Mokyklos g. 3, Vištytis, LT-70346, Vilkaviškio rajonas.
Tel. (+370 ~ 342) 63 423.
E-mail: p.kriauciuno@gmail.com
More information >

Sūdava Area Museum
Address: Sūdavos kaimas, Klausučių seniūnija, Vilkaviškio rajonas.
Tel. (+370 ~ 342) 49 748.
More information >

History of the Museum
Since 1958 already circles of young tourists-ethnographers have functioned in schools under the guidance of teachers. Events of the past were described, things having natural, archaeological, historical value; monuments of the ethno-culture, photo-documentary material, printed matters etc. were collected and fixed by their efforts.
In December 1962 the first exhibition of the written material and rare finds was arranged exhibits of which were left for the future museum.
1963 - the year of the foundation of the museum. A school inspector of the Education division of the municipality Gabriele Karaliene set to leading the museum. Stock of the museum was started being accumulated; the activity of the museum was organized on her initiative and concern.
Teachers and school children were the most active and heartfelt supporters during the entire period of the existence of the museum.
On August 29, 1990 the ethnographic museum was conferred the status of the state museum.
In 1997 the museum was moved to Paežeriai, former estate palace.
Founder of the museum is Municipality of Vilkaviškis Region.

Vincas Kudirka
V. Kudirka (December 31, 1858 in Paežeriai – November 16, 1899 in Naumiestis).
One of the ideologists of the Lithuanian national movement, the writer of the Lithuanian national anthem. In 1889-1905 he organized the publication of Varpas (The Bell), a prohibited newspaper in Lithuanian. He guided the ideological contents of the newspaper, and edited it occasionally. One of the initiators of Lithuanian realistic satire, and civic and national poetry. He wrote works of prose and poetry, publicistic and critical articles, did translations, collected data on folklore, and arranged music. Civic and national themes prevail in his works which criticize the Russification policy conducted by the Russian authorities of that time, propagate the ideals of democracy, condemn political despotism, and arouse Lithuanian national consciousness. Besides, he was one of the most famous Lithuanian translators at the end of the XIX c. (he translated Cain by George Byron, The Maid of Orleans and Wilhelm Tell by Friedrich Schiller, Mindaugas by Juliusz Slowacki, and All Souls' Day by Adam Mickiewicz). (From: Acquaintance with Lithuania. Book of the Millennium.-Volume One.-K.-1999)