Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Also available in: fr el ie it lt pt ro en fb yt

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Geographical Areas

Homepage > Learning Science through Nature > Geographical Areas

GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS

NAME OF THE LOCAL AREA
Folk Museum in Rumšiškės
COUNTRY
Lithuania
CITY
Rumšiškės
THEMATIC AREA
Geography
DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL AREA
Rumšiškės open-air museum is a massive recreation of pre-industrial Lithuania. With ~150 buildings spread over landscaped 195 ha it is also among the world‘s largest museums.

Nearly everything in Rumšiškės had been moved from somewhere else. 19th-century huts, sheds, and farmer homes that stood all over Lithuania have been saved from destruction by reassembling them here. They are joined by mills, churches, workshops and inns that were the backbone of the economy, entertainment and lifestyle.

The area is so huge that ~10 km of walking is required to see everything. Much of the museum consists of open spaces, ponds, and forests that put the "secluded villages" into context. The villages may be somewhat sanitized compared to historical reality, but that makes them more picturesque and no less interesting to explore.

In summer many of museum‘s mostly-wooden buildings may be entered, witnessing period tools and crafts inside. Rumšiškės is the most lively during some traditional festivals which are celebrated here in the traditional way.

[http://www.truelithuania.com/rumsiskes-museum-of-lithuanian-peoples-way-of-life-518]

PICTURES

The Traditional Aukštaitija region cottage (Pirkia) Aukštaičiai house, the main homestead dwellings, log walls, a gable roof (formerly the roof was four slopes) with entrance with a small roof. The house includes the following premises: hallway, residential premise, kitchen, other presises. The residential premise - the most important residential part of the house. In there made food, eaten, a range of household work. There are sleeping. The floor usually ramming clay. In the residential premise are four - five windows. One of the most important equipment is the cottage stove for cooking boiled, baked bread, as well as the room heating.
The Traditional Žemaitija region house (Troba) Traditional Žemaičiai cottage are massive, usually with two ends which are equipped with facilities. One end is called “prastąja” farmhouse, where the kitchen and the best farmhouse, while the other end is usually 4 space. In the middle of Farmhouse, between the two ends, is a separate room, which is called a stack. The roof usually is four slopes, was once covered with straw or wood shavings.
The Dzūkija region farmhouse (Pirkia) The House plan - a two-room unit consisting of a main room, so-called cottage, and the porch. Farmhouse - this is a permanent family office, which prepared food, edible, sleep and work in a number of different jobs. There a lot of space (from 1/4 to 1/8), took a bread oven, which together served for heating and cooking. The furnace stand outside such that the window light to the opening. While the farmhouse were woven, there had to accommodate and weaving mills, which also took a lot of space, making it almost square room was left solid, spacious, with windows on two or three sides. Dining table with benches stood in the opposite corner of the furnace between the rear and side walls, mostly in the southeastern side. This place was considered sacred, it was called krikštasuole.A corner of a shelf hung with important things (eg., Documents), a towel around her - holy paintings, and above the table, more often during the holidays, hanging garden. It was performed rituals within the home holidays, near table planted venerable family members, guests, built in a corner of the first slit cereal feet.
Suvalkija dwelling house (Stuba) Traditionally Suvalkija region’s house is long and narrow with a lot of space. Triangular gable of a roof with a slight overlap. The roof ridge was covered with ornate tiles profiled figural (kraiginėmis). Home vault divided into three planes, impeachment vertically and obliquely tables, it provides a canopy splendor. Obliquely nailed table consists of tree drawing. Dome decoration complements the box with decorative pane. At the main entrance in the house presented an open gable roof porch (veranda). Entrance Hall fences nailed from vertical wooden boards. Home windows with shutters. Single-leaf doors, bilayer. The foundation of the house of stone, the upper part of the brick. The building is characterized by planning Suvalkija: porch is accessed through the kitchen. One end of the house - Stuba, another - Seklyčia with sofa pantry. Seklycia usually receive guests, it would stand a better furniture, and in Stuba lived continuously. The house used to heat the three furnaces. The kitchen was standing bread oven and stove.

VIDEO

Rumšiškės museum in open air

he Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumšiškes (Kaišiadorys District) is an exposition in the open air. The core exhibits of this museum include dwelling houses, farmstead buildings and folk art monuments transferred from all ethnographic regions of Lithuania, Aukštaitija, Žemaitija, Suvalkija ir Dzūkija, and reassembled in a 175-ha area, in a beautiful location near the Kaunas Man-made Sea and Praviena rivulet. Some of the buildings were constructed 200 years ago and earlier. They acquaint visitors with the mode of life as well as housing construction and equipment techniques of people during various periods. 140 buildings are exposed as farmsteads and villages while town’s buildings are grouped around a square. The farmsteads show fences, draw-wells, gardens or parterres. The majority of interior expositions display restored household articles and furniture, cloths, kitchen utensils and tools typical to one other period. The museum also invites to active expositions where weavers, wood carvers, potters and other craftsmen work.