Page 250 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

248  LITHU ANIA REGION B Y REGION

founder of the first Lithuanian-
language newspaper, Aušra
(Dawn), composer and painter
M K Čiurlionis (see p265) and
Marija and Jurgis Šlapelis (see
p227). A more controversial
monument is the tomb of the
man responsible for Poland’s
annexa tion of Vilnius in 1920,
Józef Pilsudski (1867–1935). His
body lies among those of the
kings and queens of Kraków,
but by his wishes his heart was
cut out and placed here under
a granite slab. The cemetery
Delightful wooden building of the Pushkin Museum is spiritually significant for
Lithuanians. In 1956, a crowd
8 Pushkin Museum house, behind a statue of gathered here to protest the
Puškino memorialinis muziejus Pushkin, are acres of tranquil suppression of the Hungarian
grounds and a small onion- uprising against Soviet occupation.
Subačiaus 124. Tel 260 0080.
@ 10,13. Open 10am–5pm Wed– domed family mausoleum.
Sun. & 8 ∑ vilniausmuziejai.lt Steps lead down to a lake, and
the paths that reach out into 0 Paneriai
This museum is located in a the sur rounding countryside Holocaust
bright yellow wooden house, are a delight to explore. Memorial
which stands out on a plea sant
grassy hill. It was not the great Panerių memorialinis muziejus
Russian poet, but his son 9 Rasos Cemetery Agrastų 17, 8 km (5 miles) SW of
Grigorij (1835–1905) who Rasų kapinės Vilnius. Tel 6808 1278. £ from Vilnius.
lived here with his wife Varvara Rasų gatvė. Tel 265 6563. @ 31. Open 9am–5pm Mon–Thu, Sun.
(1855–1935). Founded in
1940 and opened in 1948, the Revered national figures and Centuries of Jewish culture and
museum is now home to many ordinary Vilnius folk lie side by tradition in Vilnius ended at this
volumes of Alexander Pushkin’s side in this cemetery, founded in major Holocaust site. About
works and the ground floor 1769. Some of the distinguished 70,000 Jewish men, women and
is furnished in the late 19th- tombstones include those of children were slaughtered in the
century style. At the back of the Jonas Basanavičius (1851–1927), forests of Paneriai between July

Imposing tombstones of Marija and Jurgis Šlapelis at the Rasos Cemetery
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp304–305 and pp326–8

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