Tauragė Area Museum. Photo: Romualdas Vaitkus

Tauragė Area Museum. Photo: Romualdas Vaitkus

Tauragė Area Museum. Photo: Romualdas Vaitkus

tauragė AREA Museum

Contacts
Address: S. Dariaus ir S. Girėno g. 5, LT-72215, Tauragė.
Tel. (+370 ~ 446) 51 468.
E-mail: tauragesmuziejus@zebra.lt
Director – Petras Jokubauskas.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
Monday to Thursday 9–17;
Saturday 10–16.

Admission:
adults – 3 Lt (0,87 €);
pupils, students – 1 Lt (0,29 €).

Additional services:
ordering excursions throughout the Museum.

Collection
Collection of the museum is arranged according to the departments. It consists of exhibits of archaeology, numismatics, iconography, old printed matters, textile, valuable items of folk art, tools of peasants’ trades and crafts, household articles, as well as stuffed animals and birds made in the laboratory of the Nature division, collections of insects.

Exposition
Exhibitions of paintings, history, folk art, ethnography, photographs, exhibitions to mark famous peoples’ anniversaries or those meant to observe jubilees of educational institutions, important dates of history are being constantly organized in the museum.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions prepared at the museum are fixed to particulars of various persons, commemorating historical dates and art, folk art, photography and local-lore exhibitions are organized at the Museum.

Cultural, educational activity
Giving lectures for the society;
Conducting lessons;
Guiding excursions;
Organization of cognitive events;
Presentations of new books, collections, compact plates;
Co-operation with Cultural Institutions;
Organization of itinerant exhibitions and lectures.

Departments
Department of History: employees of the division take part in archaeological excavations in Taurage region, accumulate research material, and investigate the history of Tauragė region.
Department of Ethnography: investigate traditional customs, accumulate valuable articles of ethnic culture, contemporary folk artists’ works, collect folklore.
Department of Nature: explore the nature of Tauragė region, make stuffed animals and birds in the laboratory.

History of the Museum
Tauragė Region Museum is located in the architectural ensemble called the Castle of Tauragė. Originally constructed as a Tsarist customs-house and a prison for border violators, smugglers and Lithuanian book-smugglers (Lithuanian: knygnešiai), eventually this building developed as a complex of four large buildings, surrounded by the stone wall with the Renaissance-style towers at the corners.
September 1, 1990 is considered the date of the establishment of Tauragė Area Museum (“Santaka” museum in Tauragė) when the first staff member of the museum was employed.
The first exposition of the museum was arranged in 1992.
The museum pays special attention to organization of exhibitions, delivering lectures and cultural activity.
In the meantime, ways to expand the present exposition, to complete arranging exposition of the Nature division, to prepare historical exposition, as well as to open photograph gallery are looked for.

Tauragė Land
In Lithuania’s southwest, on the bank of the Jura river, a tributary of the Nemunas, and by the Konigsberg-Riga highway already for several centuries there have lain a town nicely called by our ancestors Tauragė .
The name of Tauragė is composed of two words: tauras (buffalo) and ragas (horn). It poetically reminds of this land’s olden times.
Old burial grounds, ancient settlements, mounds and archeological findings discoverer in them reveal that people have already inhabited these places since the time of Christ. In historical turns Tauragė found itself between two Tauragė found itself between two worlds: historical ethnic lands, different dialects, the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Catholicism and Reformation, and Prussia and the Russian Empire. Sometimes this land had to serve as a frontier dividing these worlds and at other times as a bridge uniting them. Consequently, this beautiful land, like a weather-beaten but unbroken pine by a big road, has acquired its singular and peculiar tinge.
The Tauragė land covers the area of 1,179 square kilometers. Its inhabitants number 55,860. Eight municipalities have been established there. The excellent geographical position of Tauragė creates favorable conditions for businessmen, traders and holiday makers, since there are only 120 km to the sea port of Klaipėda, 100 km to the Siauliai airport, 230 km to Riga and 180 km to Kaliningrad.
A wonderful landscape, light and rich forests and rivers abounding in fish give many pleasant impressions to travelers and holidaymakers.
Traditionally formed relations of friendship, businesslike cooperation and family lead to Germany, the United States, Canada and other countries. Such experience has also developed Tauragė’s partner ties with the communities of the towns of Redstart of Germany and Sokoldal of Norway.
Tauragė and its community were greatly devastated by the Soviet occupation and World War II. The majority of its educated people were deported to Siberia, while the rest, trying to escape the alike fate, withdrew to the West. Genocide and repatriation destroyed numerous Jewish and German communities that had lived there for centuries.
Currently, with 35,000 inhabitants, Tauragė is the center of region and district. Not only administrative but also cultural and scientific establishments and industrial and trade enterprises are concentrated there. Believers of various denominations get on well and live in ecumenical concord.
The people of Tauragė are patiently overcoming the difficulties of historical changes and building their future with hope.