Choose from 26 Fun Things to Do in Vilnius
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Grutas Park
Grutas Parks is a fascinating cultural center that exhibits Soviet era relics and statues in its museum and sculpture garden.
From 1989 to 1991, when Lithuania regained its independence, Soviet monuments were dismantled and dumped throughout the country. In an effort to preserve the monuments but with little money to do so, the government allowed Lithuanian entrepreneur Viliumas Malinauskas to open this self-funded sculpture park in 2001 near the town of Druskininkai.
Spread over 20 hectares (49 acres), Grutas Park has 86 monuments and statues set among re-creations of Soviet prison camps, guard towers and barbed-wire fences. Here you’ll find statues of the main Communist leaders and thinkers, including Lenin, Stalin and Marx, leaders of the Red Terror and the Red Army. The set-up is designed to help visitors understand the impact of Soviet ideology on the Lithuanian people.
Practical Info
The park also includes a gallery of paintings and graphics in the Soviet realism style. There’s an on-site cafe, a large playground (Lunapark) and a mini zoo to keep the kids entertained.
Grutas park is located near Druskininkai, about 130 kilometres (81mi) southwest of Vilnius.
Address: Druskininkai, 66441, Lithuania
Hours: Open daily, 9am - 10pm, closes at 5pm in winter
Admission: Adults: 20 Lt, Children (6 - 16yrs): 10 Lt
From $ 9
Museum of Ancient Beekeeping
In pagan times, bees were sacred in Lithuanian culture and even today the honey bee is a symbol of friendship in the country, so it’s appropriate that one of the odder tourist attractions is the Museum of Ancient Beekeeping amid the lakes and low hills of Aukštaitija National Park.
Founded in 1984, the museum spreads through six buildings, detailing the history of beekeeping in Lithuania, tool collections and ancient beehives. Outside there are several glass-sided hives
where visitors can see the bees at work, and a large number of the displays are devoted to myths surrounding the humble bee in ancient Egyptian, Native American and pagan Lithuanian cultures, as well as sculptures of the Lithuanian bee gods Babilas and Austeja. Wood carvings along a forest trail illustrate the development of beekeeping from the days of wild bee hunting–when beekeepers would simply follow the swarm – through primitive hives made out of hollowed logs to present-day commercial hives. Guests get the chance to sample honey at the end of their visit, and August 15 each year sees the celebration of Medkopio šventė, the “feast of honey and bread,” at the museum with much merrymaking and tasting of the year’s honey.
Practical Info
The Museum of Ancient Beekeeping is located 60 miles (100 km) north of Vilnius in Aukštaitija National Park. The museum is open from May through October, Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission costs 3.50LTL, and concessions cost 2LTL.
Address: Aukstaitija National Park, Stripeikių Village, Ignalina region, Lithuania
Hours: The museum is open from May through October, Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Admission: 3.50LTL
From $ 87
Bernardine Church
As happened so often in Vilnius over the centuries, the imposing Church of St Francis and St Bernadine was built on the site of an earlier wooden church and originally formed part of the city’s defensive walls. It was built in the early 16th century as the dedicated church of a Dominican monastery nearby and is a curious mix of Gothic and Baroque styling with a multi-colored brick upper façade. Completely overshadowed by the Gothic pinnacles and spires of St Anne’s Church immediately in front of it, the Bernadine Church nevertheless had one of the finest interiors in Vilnius. It survived several fires and the ravages of war with Russia relatively intact until the Soviet occupation of Lithuania began in 1944 and the ornate interior was destroyed. Now as restoration work is in progress, the church’s 14 intricate altars, the oldest crucifix in the country and the splendidly ornate carved wooden lecterns and pulpits are slowly coming back to life.
The Bernadine Church sits tucked behind the decorative Gothic St Anne’s Church, and together with the Neo-Gothic bell tower and the monastery close by–which now houses the Vilnius Art Academy – the three buildings form the Bernadine Priory.
Practical Info
The Bernardine Church is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mass takes place every day at various times beginning at 7:30 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends. Admission is free.
Address: 10 Maironio Street, Vilnuis, Lithuania
Hours: Open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
From $ 12
Artillery Bastion (Basteja)
The Artillery Bastion in Vilnius is one of the last surviving parts of the city’s old defensive wall. Built in the 17th century, it is a horseshoe shaped building with a tower and connecting tunnel. Damaged during the Russian occupation in the late part of the 17th century, the bastion gradually lost its defensive function. By the beginning of the 19th century, most of the defensive wall had been destroyed and the bastion was turned into a garbage dump for the city.
Reconstruction of the bastion began in 1966 as the tower was rebuilt and the tunnel and interior rooms were renovated. A museum opened within the bastion in 1987 and there visitors can see weapons and armor from the 15th to 19th centuries, as well as cannons and stone cannon shells. A viewing platform also offers a nice view of Vilnius’ Old Town.
Practical Info
The Artillery Bastion is within walking distance of Vilnius’ Old Town. The nearest bus stop is at Ausros Vartai, where buses 13, 31, 34, 74, 88 and 102N stop. From there, it is just a couple blocks to the bastion. Guided tours are available in the Lithuanian, Russian and English languages, but tours in a foreign language must be ordered in advance by phone or e-mail.
Address: Bokšto gatvė 20/18, Vilnius, Lithuania
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Admission: 2 Euro
From $ 5
Kedainiai Old Town
One of the oldest towns in Lithuania, Kèdainiai is a photogenic Baroque relic of times gone by on the banks of the River Nevėžis. First mentioned in 1372, it may have been founded as a fishing village but grew quickly thanks to its position as the seat of the powerful Protestant Radziwiłł family. Kèdainiai soon became the cosmopolitan, tolerant home of Protestant refugees from all over Europe, an important trading center and the home of much-revered Lithuanian Jewish intellectual Vilna Gaon in the late 1720s. The town remained a successful melting pot until World War II, when the German army assassinated the town’s Jewish community on Aug. 28, 1941. Today Kèdainiai’s charmless 21st-century outskirts hide the best-preserved medieval center of any town in Lithuania, packed with multi-colored gabled Baroque townhouses, Protestant and Orthodox churches and synagogues, all built around a maze of market squares.
The Kèdainiai Regional Museum incorporates three branches: the mausoleum of the Radziwiłł family, a museum of sculptures created by wood carver Vytautas Ulevičius and, in a gesture to the town’s polyglot past, a multi-cultural center housed in a former synagogue. A thought-provoking sculpture entitled The Eye of God stands outside to commemorate the massacre of Kèdainiai’s Jews in 1941, and a metal memorial at the mass grave records the names of those buried there.
Practical Info
Kèdainiai is located 50 miles (80 km) north of Kaunas. The Kèdainiai Regional Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission costs 4LTL.
Address: 19 Didzioji Street, Kèdainiai, Lithuania
Hours: The Kèdainiai Regional Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: Admission to museum is 4LTL.
From $ 93
Rumsiskes Open-Air Museum
Lithuania’s open-air museum celebrates rural life and pays homage to folk customs from the last 200 years with the country’s largest collection of national costumes, religious art, traditional toys, agricultural implements and historic housing. About 80 typical pre-Soviet buildings have been squirreled together from across the country and reconstructed to form farmsteads and villages here at the Rumšiškės Open-Air Museum.
Ranging from peasant farms to churches and small village dwellings, some are faithfully, if somewhat spartanly, decked out in appropriate period style with kitchen implements, tools and basic furniture. Each replica village settlement is surrounded by gardens and fields planted and worked in traditional, pre-Soviet fashion. The museum’s staff members dress up in peasant costumes to live the ancient life, demonstrating farming methods and traditional crafts such as
metalwork, amber carving and textile weaving. Folk-dancing and masked pagan festivals are held throughout the summer, with traditional foods, dance and song. A poignant memorial corner
in the museum is dedicated to the tragedy of the Lithuanian diaspora under Soviet rule.
Practical Info
The museum is located eight miles (13 km) from Kaunas. It is open daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. in May through September, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from October 1 through October 15. The greater park has the same hours in May through September, but is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from October 16 to March 31, Wednesday through Sunday. In April, it stays open until 5 p.m. Admission to the park costs 8LTL, and admission for the museum costs 10LTL. Parking is available on site.
Address: L. Lekavičiaus str. 2, Rumšiškės, Kaišiadorių region, Lithuania
Hours: May 1 – September 30:
Monday – Sunday: 10 AM – 6 PM.
October 1 – October 15:
Monday – Sunday: 10 AM – 5 PM.
Admission: Adults: 10LTL (museum), 8LTL (park), Children: 5 LTL
From $ 81
St. Anne's Church
The decorative brick towers, rose windows and spires of this flamboyant late-Gothic church were finished in 1501, and today it is one of Old Town’s best-loved landmarks.
The church was constructed on the site of an earlier wooden church first mentioned in 1394. St Anne's was designed by either Polish architect Michael Enkinger, who built a church of the same name in Warsaw, or the Bohemian Benedikt Rejt, who had a hand in building Prague Castle. Its ornate multi-patterned façade bristles with arcades, arches, flying buttresses and gargoyles.
Inside, the church’s single nave is surprisingly austere, with high vaulted ceilings and plain walls with little adornment except carved wooden pews and lecterns. Much of the original stained glass was destroyed by Napoleon’s troops when they were stationed here in 1812, despite the apocryphal tale that he apparently loved the church so much he wanted to "carry it home in the palm of his hand."
The freestanding, clumsy Neo-Gothic bell tower to the right of the main entrance to St Anne’s was an afterthought added in 1873; the church close by is St Francis and St Bernadine; together the three buildings comprise the Bernadine Priory.
Practical Info
St Anne's Church is open from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. in the summer months (May through September) and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. the rest of the year. Mass takes place Monday through Saturday at 6 p.m., and twice on Sunday at both 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Admission is free.
Address: Maironio gatvė 8-1, Vilnius 01124, Lithuania
Hours: May–Sept 11am-7pm; Oct–Apr 5pm–7pm
From $ 12
Trakai
Trakai is a historic city and lake resort 28km (17mi) west of Vilnius and is a popular day trip from the capital.
Dating back to the 13th century, Trakai was unusual in the fact that was inhabited by a number of difference nationalities simultaneously. Historically, Karaims, Tatars, Lithuanians, Russsians, Poles and Jews all lived in Trakai. Trakai Historical National Park was founded in 1991 to preserve the city as a center of Lithuanian statehood.
There are 200 lakes in the Trakai region and the town itself is surrounded by water. Originally settled by the Grand Duke Gediminas in the early 13th century (who built the Old Trakai castle, the remains of which lie under the existing 15th century monastery), Trakai passed to Gediminas’ son, who developed the town and built two additional castles.
Today, only the Island Castle remains and is the town’s main attraction, hosting the Trakai Castle Festival and a number of cultural events throughout the year.
Practical Info
Trakai is 28km (17mi) Trakai is 28km (17mi) southwest of Vilnius.
Address: Trakai, Lithuania
From $ 9
Gate of Dawn
Vilnius’s medieval defensive walls originally had nine entry gates, all built in the early 16th century; as was custom then, each was decorated with a portrait of the Virgin Mary to ensure the protection of the city. Today only remnants of these walls still stand after the Russian attacks of 1799, and the whitewashed Gate of Dawn, completed in 1522 with an ornate pediment, is the last remaining of the original fortified city entrances.
Around 1630, Carmelite monks from a nearby monastery replaced the original image on the Gate of Dawn with a new icon named the ‘Vilnius Madonna’, painted on oak boards and widely believed in both Catholic and Orthodox faiths to have mystical healing powers. The Renaissance-style, pastel-blue-and-white Chapel of Our Lady of the Dawn was grafted on to the southern side of Gate of Dawn around 1706 to house the painting, which became one of Lithuania’s most revered icons.
Today it is encrusted in gold and silver and its pretty little chapel is adorned with silver votives donated by pilgrims. Masses are held in both Polish and Lithuanian and on holy days the streets around the chapel are brought to a standstill as worshippers flock to pray in front of the icon.
Practical Info
The Gate of Dawn is open daily from 6 a.m until 7 p.m.
Address: Aušros Vartų gatvė 14, Vilnius 01303, Lithuania
Hours: Daily 6am-7pm
From $ 12
Gediminas Avenue (Gedimino prospektas)
Vilnius’ main boulevard stretches from the River Neris in the west to the sweeping expanse of Cathedral Square in the southeast, and is named after the country’s greatest hero, the legendary Grand Duke Gediminas, who is credited with founding the fledgling country of Lithuania in the 13th century. Built in 1836 as Vilnius expanded with the arrival of the railway line from St Petersburg, Gediminas Avenue was originally named Georgij Avenue and has been renamed several times according to the regime in power. The wide avenue is lined with trees and glamorous Baroque townhouses in pastel colors; these house many government ministries and courthouses as well as banks, the national library and several leading Lithuanian theaters. By day a popular shopping and meeting place, Gediminas Avenue comes into its own at night when it morphs into one of Vilnius’ most upmarket dining spots.
As the street bisects Vilnius city center, landmarks along Gediminas Avenue include Seimas Palace, built in 2007 in modernist style as befits the seat of the new, independent Lithuanian Parliament. The 17th-century Lukiškės Square borders the avenue to the north; now a tranquil green lung of the city, it was the site of public hangings in the 19th century and during World War II, dissidents were executed here by Soviet troops.
Practical Info
Open 24/7.
Address: Gediminas Avenue, Vilnius, Lithuania
From $ 12
Curonian Spit & Kursiu Nerija National Park
The Curonian Spit is a 98km (61mi) long sand peninsula that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. This thin and curved piece of land has its southern half in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia and its northern half in southwestern Lithuania.
Formed about 5,000 years ago from a glacier, winds and sea currents generate enough sand to keep the Curonian Spit above sea level. In fact, the spit is home to the highest moving sand dunes in Europe. With dunes as high as 60m (196ft) in some places, the width of the spit varies greatly - from a minimum of 400m (1,312ft) in Russia to a maximum of 3,800m (12,467ft) in Lithuania (just north of Nida).
Nida is the largest town on the spit and a popular holiday spot for Lithuanian and German tourists. The spit’s best beaches are around here, along its northern shoreline.
Kuršių Nerija National Park was established in 1991 to protect the unique ecosystems of the Curonian Spit and Curonian Lagoon. Several ecological communities can be found here, from the spits outer beaches to dune ridges, wetlands, meadows, and forests.
The spit and lagoon are a popular feeding and resting ground for a large number of migratory waterfowl, and it is estimated that up to as many as 10 million birds may stop here during their spring and fall migrations.
Practical Info
The Curonian Spit & Kursiu Nerija National Park are UNESCO World Heritage protected and efforts to combat wind and tide erosion through reforestation of the area are ongoing.
The Curonian Spit & Kursiu Nerija National Park is about 200km (124mi) from Kaunas by road and 240km (150mi) by boat (to Nida).
Address: Lithuania
Hours: Open year-round
Admission: Vehcles: 15 Lt, Excursions: 30 - 50 Lt/hr
From $ 52
Museum of Genocide Victims (KGB Museum)
Situated in Vilnius’s former Gestapo and KGB headquarters, the memorial to the thousands imprisoned and murdered under Soviet occupation after WWII is vital to understanding the psyche of Lithuania.
Following the demise of Germany, the Agreement of Yalta of 1945 was put in place between the triumvirate of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt, which saw Europe carved up and half of Germany and all lands to the east, including Poland and the Baltic States, handed over to Russia. A guerrilla war ensued against Soviet occupation and in the years until the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, rebels were consistently murdered or deported to Siberia, although the shackles of Communism were not fully shaken off until Lithuanian independence in 1990.
As well as detailing the gradual suppression of the Lithuanian people under Stalin, exhibitions include KGB torture cells and execution chambers, which hold personal belongings rescued from mass graves found in countryside outside Vilnius. Considering that this building also housed the Gestapo HQ, an appropriate recent addition to the museum is the display about the Jewish ghettos and the Holocaust in Lithuania, including artifacts from the execution site at Paneriai.
Practical Info
The museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., and until 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission costs 6LTL, and concessions are 3LTL.
Address: Aukų gatvė 2, Vilnius 01113, Lithuania
Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 10am-5pm
Admission: Adults 6LTL
From $ 5
Subacius Hill
Accessible by foot through the cobbled streets of photogenic, bohemian Užupis—which declared its independence from the rest of Vilnius in 1997 and even has its own tin-pot army—Subačius Hill provides panoramic views across to Vilnius’s Old Town and the suburban, purpose-built Soviet apartment blocks beyond.
Telescopes and brass information boards at the viewing points on this tranquil little spot help visitors to identify the Baroque churches of St Anne’s and the Holy Spirit, as well as Gediminas Tower on the horizon. After drinking in your fill of the view, take time out on the terrace bar in a couple of the nearby café or declare your feelings for a loved one by attaching a padlock to the wrought-iron railings around the view point.
Practical Info
Subacius Hill is open 24/7.
Address: Vilnius, Lithuania
From $ 12
Ginuciai Water Mill
Located near Ignalina among the rivers and lakes of eastern Lithuania’s scenic Aukštaitija National Park, the wooden water mill at Ginučiai was originally constructed in the 19th century and sits over waters running into Lake Linkmenas. Until 1968 it was used for making flour and producing electricity but following its closure, the mill was extensively refurbished and reopened in 1978 as part museum and part rustic, back-to-nature hotel. It is now the only wooden water mill still standing in the country to have all its original milling machinery still in use, including the mill stones and water wheels.
Practical Info
A visit to Ginučiai can be combined with the nearby eccentric Museum of Ancient Beekeeping nearby. The mill is situated 60 miles (100 km) north of Vilnius in Aukštaitija National Park and is open in summer and free to visit.
Address: Ginuciai Village, Ignalina, Lithuania
From $ 87
Gediminas Tower
Gediminas Castle Tower is practically all that remains of Upper Castle, the medieval complex that was constructed in Vilnius in the early 14th century. The tower was once the reward that followed an arduous climb up Castle Hill through Vilnius Old Town, but these days a funicular makes the journey up to the castle from the courtyard outside the Cathedral and Lower Castle much easier.
Perched at a height of 157 feet (48 m) above the rest of the city, not much of the Upper Castle has survived the civil wars and Russian sieges of Lithuania’s 15th through 17th centuries. After being damaged during the war with Moscow in 1655, the castle lost its strategic importance and was not rebuilt, gradually falling into disrepair. The remaining sturdy and hexagonal Gediminas
Tower has become a redbrick symbol of peace to the people of Lithuania; it now forms part of the nine-branch National Museum of Lithuania, and inside there is a small exhibition of weapons and armory. Far more popular, however, is the panoramic vista of Vilnius from the landmark’s viewing platform. On a clear day, the Television Tower and the high-rise apartment complexes
evidencing Soviet occupation can be spotted; the view is just as good at nightfall with the lights of Vilnius Old Town twinkling merrily below.
Practical Info
Gediminas Tower is open daily from May through September, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. In the remaining months, it closes at 5 p.m. Admission costs 5LTL. The funicular has the same opening dates, and one-way tickets costs 2LTL. A round-trip costs 3LTL.
Address: 5 Arsenalo Street, Vilnuis, Lithuania
Hours: May - September: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
October - April: 10a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: Adults 5LTL
From $ 6
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church
Legend says that St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church was built on the site of a former pagan temple, but it is known for certain that this masterpiece of Baroque architecture was built on the remains of a wooden church destroyed in the internecine struggles of the 17th century.
This Roman Catholic Church was commissioned in 1668 by Lithuanian aristocrat Mykolas Pacas to celebrate a victory over the Russians. It was designed by Italian architect Frediani Giambattista with a relatively austere ocher-and-white Baroque façade that belies its fantastical interior – unusual for a Baroque church, the entire interior is decorated in monotones augmented with rare splashes of color.
Master Italian sculptor Pietro Perti worked for 30 years to create the 2,000 snowy-white stucco statues of saints and biblical figures that adorn the nave and aisles, and the macabre Grim Reaper statue and spectacularly ornate central dome should not be missed.
Other treasures include the vast altar painting of St. Peter and St. Paul by Panciškus Smuglevicius and the glittering Art Nouveau chandelier in the shape of a silver fishing boat suspended above the main aisle in honor of St. Peter, the “fisher of men.”
Practical Info
St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church is open from 6 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Mass takes place six times a day on Sunday with the last one at 6 p.m., and four times a day Monday through Saturday.
Address: Antakalnio gatvė 1, Vilnius 10312, Lithuania
Hours: Daily 6am-6:30pm
From $ 29
Church of the Holy Spirit
A frenzied whirligig of Baroque ornamentation, the Church of the Holy Spirit was constructed at the beginning of the 15th century and is one of the most ornate of all Vilnius’s churches. Over the centuries and depending on who was ruling Lithuania at the time, it has been a Catholic church, a Dominican monastery, a parish church, a prison, and finally, today it is the Orthodox parish church of the Polish diaspora in Lithuania.
Owing its present Baroque and rococo appearance to a facelift by architect Jonas Kristupas Glaubicas after a fire in 1749, the interior is a heady clash of colors, gilt, carved wooden pews, ornate lecterns, and bright sprays of flowers. The crypt contains the skeletons of nearly 2,000 bodies, thought to be a mixture of plague victims and fallen soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century. However, most people visit to gaze in awe at the over-lavish internal decoration of the church, with its swags of marble, frescoes coating the walls, coats of arms, stucco, reliquaries and precious icons, its 16 altars and the monumental Casparini organ dating from 1776.
Practical Info
The Church of the Holy Spirit is open daily from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. Polish mass takes place at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Mass takes place six times on Sunday. Admission is free.
Address: Dominikonu gatve 8, Vilnius, Lithuania
Hours: Daily 3pm–7pm
From $ 12
Amber Museum-Gallery
Every Baltic city has an amber museum to reflect on the days when it was regarded as "Baltic gold" and served as the cornerstone of maritime trade, helping to bring wealth into Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Vilnius’s miniscule museum was opened in 1988 and is housed in the 15th-century basement of a Baroque house built 200 years later.
The collection showcases pieces of amber that are more than 50 million years old, as well as white, black, green and red varieties found along the Baltic shores. There are also several pieces with fossilized prehistoric insects trapped inside. The highlight of the collection is the reconstructed display of the fabled Treasure of Juodkrante, a stash of Stone Age amber jewelry discovered in the 1880s on the Curonian Spit, a peninsula shared by Lithuania and Kaliningrad in Russia. The ground-floor shop exhibits and sells contemporary amber jewelry, and there are daily displays of amber polishing.
Practical Info
The Amber Museum-gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Admission is free.
Address: Šv. Mykolo gatvė 8, Vilnius 01124, Lithuania
Hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
From $ 12
Aukstaitija National Park
At over 400 sq km (154 sq mi) and dense with pine, spruce and deciduous trees, Aukstaitija National Park is a real breath of fresh air.
The park’s forests attract deer, elk and wild boar but its biggest appeal, is its large number of lakes and rivers that make up 30% of the park’s total area. There are 30 rivers and 126 lakes in total and it is possible to explore many of them by boat or kayak. One of the prettiest lakes is Lake Baluosas, which has seven islands, one of which has a lake of its own.
There are over one hundred villages within the park, six of them protected as architectural monuments. Sights of interest within the villages include, the 19th century Ginuciai watermill, the bizarre Beekeeping Museum in Stripeikiai and an old wooden church (1750) and bell tower at Paluse.
AT 175m (574ft) the Ladakalnis peak offers breathtaking panoramic views of the forests and lakes below.
Practical Info
Aukstaitija National Park is about 100km (62mi) north of Vilnius.
Address: Lithuania
Hours: Open year-round
From $ 64
Pazaislis Monastery
The country’s finest example of Italian baroque architecture can be seen at the Pazaislis Monastery and church in Kaunas, the largest monastery complex in Lithuania.
Built in 1662 by the order of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, four Italian architects designed the church and monastery, while sculptors of Lombardy completed the frescos and plaster casts.
Converted to an Orthodox church by the Russians in 1832, the church was also used as an archive, a psychiatric hospital and an art gallery in its time before being returned to the Catholic order in the 1990s and reconstructed to its former glory.
Every year, the Pazaislis Monastery plays hosts to an international music festival. If you visit during the summer months, you won’t be able to miss it.
Practical Info
Pazaislis monastery and church is on a peninsula in the Kaunas Reservoir near the Kaunas Yacht Club.
Address: T. Masiulio st. 31, Kaunas, Lithuania
Hours: Open daily 11am - 5pm
From $ 81