EXPLORING DZŪKIJA VILLAGES
| EXPLORING DZŪKIJA VILLAGES |
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On 15 July 2008, the staff of the Birštonas Tourist Information Centre set off on the first trip this year. This time we tried to discover those tiny pearls which hide from sensation chasing tourists in Dzūkija woods and live their quiet and peaceful life. Local inhabitants look at tourists with cameras with wonder and slight distrust: why do they take photos, why do they come here and what can they find interesting in this place? Just browse our photo gallery which records the moments of the life of vanishing yet still alive Dzūkija villages and towns ONUŠKIS is a place where Kipras Petrauskas once lived and signatory Donatas Malinauskas went on the racket:
VAIKŠTENIAI is a small colourful street type Dzūkija village consisting of 38 homesteads, not yet affected by modern “renovation”:
KLEPOČIAI is a street type village consisting of 27 homesteads located at a distance of hardly 3 km from Vaikšteniai village; however, you have to search hard for the ethnic heritage: TILTAI is a street-and-strip type village consisting of 72 homesteads, which was included on the expedition of a famous Lithuanian folk architecture researcher, Professor Kazys Šešelgis, back in 1950s:
DEGSNĖ village was discovered very unexpectedly. The former Jewish village is at a distance of 3 km from Valkininkai. We were impressed by peculiar house galleries:
VALKININKAI was once given as a gift to Julijona, the second wife of Vytautas; it was famous for its armoury; it survived during the battle of the Sapieha and Oginski families; in the 19th century it became an industrial town with a paper mill and the first cement factory in Lithuania; it was known for one of the most impressive Jewish synagogues in Lithuania; it preserved a unique triangular town square; and now the village welcomes its visitors with peace and quietness:
DARGUŽIAI is an ethnographic village famous for its Pentecost feasts and goat’s milk cheese:
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