Amber Museum of Palanga shows its new exhibit

VILNIUS - On July 6, Lithuania will celebrate the Crowning of King Mindaugas, which took place in the 13th century. At 12:00, as usual, enthusiasts from the Kaunas War Museum dressed, in Lithuanian military uniforms of 18th century’s Lithuanian Grand Duchy, will fire three shots from their ancient cannons in front of the Presidential Palace in Vilnius. These guys do such shootings during most Lithuanian state holidays, as well as events organized by the Lithuanian Royal Union of Nobility (interestingly, sculptor Konstantinas Bagdonas, who, hiding his noble roots, created statues of communist bosses during the Soviet era and a statue of Frank Zappa after it, was one of the founders of that union after independence’s re-establishment). Those who are interested in girls can go to watch the election and crowning of Miss Lithuania 2011 in the Vasaros Estrada at 19:00 on July 6 in the sea resort of Palanga - candidates for the crown can be found on http://mislietuva.lrytas.lt and tickets purchased via www.tiketa.lt or at the Vasaros Estrada.

Holiday and summer is a good time to go to the sea resort of Palanga. Interestingly, when Lithuania and Latvia became independent in 1918, Palanga was a disputed territory between both brotherly countries. Finally, in 1921, international arbitrage headed by a wise man from Edinburgh gave Palanga to Lithuania (Latvians should not complain because they got more territory than the Lithuanians during that Lithuanian-Latvian dispute, which provoked even some shootings from the Latvian army near the Lithuanian town of Mazeikiai, where one Lithuanian soldier was shot dead and two Lithuanians were injured).

This year Palanga meets its visitors with a totally renovated pier. In June, a new 12 kilometer road for peddling bicycles from Palanga to the northwards situated smaller sea resort of Sventoji was opened. A lot of Russian language can be heard in the streets of Palanga – this sea resort is traditionally loved by Russia’s intelligentsia (there is even a new plane route Moscow-Palanga-Moscow on the RusLine), while Germans traditionally dominate among foreign tourists in the nearby Lithuanian sea resort of Neringa on the Curonian Spit (there is even a Mass in German in a local Lutheran church for those tourists in Neringa).

Actually, in June, the beaches of Neringa were named by the popular French newspaper Metro as Europe’s second best natural and wild beaches after the beaches of the Greek island of Milos. It is time for Neringa to prepare for the wave of French tourists. Neringa is for those who like tranquility, while Palanga can be a little bit noisy: the tickets to the dance party on June 8, with the world’s best DJ Tiesto (this Dutchman gave a concert to four billion TV spectators during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Athens in 2004) at the Palanga beach, can be purchased via www.tiketa.lt

It is worth visiting the Amber Museum in Palanga. It has functioned as an amber museum since 1963. There are natural pieces of amber (some of them with ancient insects inside) as well as various accessories made with amber on show in the museum. Some eight million people already visited that Amber Museum which is situated in the Lithuanian nobility palace built at the end of the 19th century.

The palace was designed by German architect Franz Schwechten (he also had a  job as the official architect at the palace of the German Kaiser). The landscape around the palace was designed by French architect Edouard Andre, who also designed parks in Monte Carlo, Luxembourg, Montevideo and Paris. The palace was built in 1897. It was the palace of Count Feliksas Tiskevicius (or Tyszkiewicz) until 1940, when the Soviets invaded and nationalized it. After the re-establishment of independence in 1990, Alfredas Tiskevicius, son of Count Tiskevicius, who lived quite poorly in Warsaw and who actually was also Count Tiskevicius, agreed to refuse his right to get back the palace, in exchange for a small house in Palanga. This elderly count, who spoke fluent Lithuanian despite many decades spent in Poland, was often seen on the streets in Palanga until his death in 2008 at the age of 94. He was buried in his beloved Palanga.

After the end of Soviet occupation, there was one remarkable change in front of the palace: the Rio-style (though many times smaller than in Rio) statue of Jesus Christ, which was destroyed by the Soviets, was rebuilt. Since this year, the concept of the museum has slightly changed: the exhibition of amber is situated only on the second floor now, while the original interior of the palace, as it looked in the beginning of 20th century, was recreated on the first floor.

The Palanga Amber Museum is open from June to August on Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10:00 to 20:00; on Sundays from 10:00 to 19:00. More info on www.pgm.lt