Page 289 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

WESTERN LITHU ANIA  287

Lietuvininkų Street in the town of Šilutė
The main highlights are the for German troops after 1944, and ice melt, 20 per cent of the
regular dolphin and sea lion and was an official unit of the delta gets flooded, attracting
shows. Permits must be Gulag from 1948 to 1955. 200 species of birds to breed,
pur chased for photography. Today, it comprises the Macikai while hund reds of other species
Concentration Camp Museum migrate through the area every
E Sea Museum and a grave site. year. A bird ringing station at
Smiltynės 3. Tel (46) 492 250. Ventė is one of the oldest in
Open Oct–Apr: 10:30am–5pm E Šilutė Museum Europe, dating from 1929.
Tue–Sun; May–Sep: 10:30am–6pm Lietuvininkų 36. Tel (441) 62 207. The floods annually threaten
Tue–Sun (Jun–Aug: to 6:30pm). & Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sat. & 8 to cut off Rusnė, located 11 km
8 - = ∑ muziejus.lt E Macikai Concentration (7 miles) southeast of Ventė.
Camp Museum A Lutheran church, built from
p Curonian Spit Macikai. Tel (441) 62 207. 1809 to 1827, is a sign of Rusnė’s
East Prussian background. It was
Open mid-May–Oct: 11am–3pm
National Park Tue–Sat. 8 changed into a sports hall in
the Soviet period, but reverted
See pp288–9. to receiv ing congregations
s Nemunas Delta in 1994. An ethnographic
a Šilutė farmstead gives a snapshot of
Road Map B5. * 1,700.
Road Map B5. * 21,500. @ from Šilutė. ∑ nemunodelta.lt past life in the delta region.
£ from Klaipėda. @ from Klaipėda. Almost 8 km (5 miles)
n Lietuvininkų 4, Parko 2, (441) 77 The low-lying delta of the northwest from Rusnė is the
785. ∑ siluteinfo.lt Nemunas, Lithuania’s largest village of Minija, situated where
river as it streams into the the Minija river meets the
Originally the site of an inn Curonian Lagoon, has great Nemunas Delta. The river serves
for travellers riding between potential for outdoor activities. as the main thoroughfare in
Klaipėda and Kaliningrad, Šilutė The wetlands, protected as a the village. Protected as
became a part of the German regional park, are a popular spot architectural monuments,
Empire in 1871. It was seized by for angling and bird-watching. 19th-century wooden houses
Lithuania in 1923, but annexed Every spring, when the snow stand on both riverbanks.
by Nazi Germany 15 years later.
German influence is still
visible in the low, red-tiled roofs
of the public buildings. On tree-
lined Lietuvininkų Street, the
tiny Šilutė Museum displays
18th-century furniture and
folk-themed exhibits. The
Evangelical Lutheran Church,
built in 1926, is decorated with
startlingly colourful murals of
biblical scenes.
Environs
Just 3 km (2 miles) northeast of
Šilutė, Macikai was used as a
German prisoner-of-war camp
from 1939, then a Soviet camp The Nemunas Delta countryside, near Šilutė

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