Page 263 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

CENTR AL LITHU ANIA  261

Environs then shot on the banks of q Birštonas
From Alytus, the Nemunas river Lake Orija. The synagogue has
sweeps towards Kaunas (see been partially restored as a Road Map D6. * 4,600. @ from
pp262–5) around several huge, national monument. Vilnius, Kaunas. n B Sruogos 4, (319)
65 740. _ Birštonas Festival (Jun),
forest-covered bends. One of The Church of the Blessed Birštonas Jazz (Mar, alternate years).
these bends can be viewed Virgin Mary, with its statues ∑ visitbirstonas.lt
from an evocative fort-hill at the of angels and kings on the
far end of the quiet village of pediments above the portico The secluded spa town of
Punia, located 15 km (9 miles) and gate, was built in 1840. Birštonas is quite different from
north of Alytus. the bustling wellness centre of
Druskininkai (see p259). Though
E Museum of Local Lore 0 Marijampolė open to paying guests as well
Savanorių 6. Tel (315) 53 370. Road Map C6. * 61,000. as patients, Birštonas’s clinical
Open 9am–6pm Tue–Fri, 9am–5pm £ from Kaunas. @ from sanitaria have remained
Sat. & ∑ alytausmuziejus.lt trapped in a bygone era.
Kaunas. n J Basanavičiaus 8,
(343) 31 020. ∑ marijampoletic.lt Nonetheless, the well-ordered
landscape planning and a
This town takes its name from pleasant pedestrian boulevard
an 18th-century monastery alongside the Nemunas river
built for the Marian Fathers, a makes it a delightful town to
religious order founded in 1673. explore. On the town’s eastern
The Church of St Michael edge stands Vytautas Castle
became a part of the complex Hill, the site of a hunting lodge
in 1824, but the monastery’s of Grand Duke Vytautas. A large
activities were restricted carved stone statue of Vytautas
after the 1831 uprising. on horseback stands near the
The church was revived fort-hill. Birštonas is
by Bishop Jurgis dotted with wooden
Matulaitis (1871–1927), houses, which date
whose remains are from the mid-19th
marked by a tomb stone century, when the reputa-
and sarco phagus. During tion of the town’s mineral
Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Soviet occu pation in waters and muds began
in Kalvarija 1944, over 6,000 residents to grow. A tiny yellow
were deported to Siberia. building in the town
9 Kalvarija Anti-Soviet partisans centre contains a tap
mounted a struggle, a Vytautas’s statue, with free access to the
Road Map C6. * 12,000. £ from
Kaunas. story told at the Tauras Birštonas rich well of water
District Partisans and below. The town
Another Lithuanian town Deportation Museum. A attracts a lot of visitors during
deeply haunted by the cemetery on Varpio Street and a Birštonas Jazz, Lithuania’s
Holocaust, Kalvarija emerged chapel on Tylioji Street remember oldest jazz festival. Held once
in the 17th century as a trad ing the victims of the Soviet regime. every two years, the three-day
town on the Warsaw–St marathon fea tures a range of
Petersburg road. Jews made E Tauras District Partisans and styles. Birštono Seklytėlė (see
up a significant part of the Deportation Museum p328), a valley-top restaurant,
population, some of them Vytauto 29. Tel (370) 3435 0754. has a grand view of the pine-
wealthy merchants who Open 9am–5pm Tue–Sat. & covered Nemunas.
exported grain to Germany,
but the majority were poor
workers who manned several
factories making brushes and
medi cinal alcohol. Wooden
synagogues were built and,
in 1803, a stone synagogue
complex was constructed,
including a rabbi’s house and
beit midrash (a place of study
and prayer).
In 1941, the Nazis and the
Soviet army exterminated the
entire Jewish population in
town. Lithuanian and Jewish
Communists were tortured, The Nemunas river, seen from the promenade at Birštonas

260-261.indd 261 15/02/17 10:16 am