Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker “The remains of fallen volunteer fighter Tomas V have been safely brought back to Lithuania,” Jonas Ohman head of Blue/Yellow NGO that provides support for Ukraine As previously announced by the Defence Ministry members of the public will be able to pay their respects on April 23 The funeral will take place in his hometown of Biržai soldiers from the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Force will honour him with a gun salute Valentėlis’ death was reported in mid-March and his body was recovered from the battlefield in early April Valentėlis was killed while carrying out a combat mission as part of Ukraine’s International Legion TALLINN - The Latvian national airline Air Baltic the largest airline company in the Baltic countries on Friday announced the conclusion of its special voting contest which invited participants to name 48 aircraft of the company's Airbus A220-300 fleet after cities from Latvia The 16 Estonian cities that received the most votes in the contest are Elva The cities of Latvia chosen by the voters are Aizpute The Lithuanian winners are Anykščiai held in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way attracted significant interest and participation both within the Baltic states and beyond the contest received more than one million votes said: "We are delighted by the overwhelming enthusiasm and engagement this contest generated The 35th anniversary of the Baltic Way is a momentous occasion celebrating unity across the Baltic states By naming our aircraft after cities in Latvia we honor this event and strengthen the connection among nations It is a privilege to have our fleet carry the names of these cities worldwide Participants could vote for any city in Latvia or Lithuania that holds official city status The Baltic Way was a peaceful political demonstration which took place on Aug when an estimated two million people joined their hands to form a 600-kilometer human chain through the Baltic countries to demonstrate their unity in the efforts towards freedom from the Soviet Union A subscription to The Baltic Times is a cost-effective way of staying in touch with the latest Baltic news and views enabling you full access from anywhere with an Internet connection. Subscribe Now! 2025 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy Privacy Policy  Through this link below you will find the online material in Lithuanian on this website the life story of Anne Frank' Vilnius The opening of the Lithuanian Let me be myself - the life story of Anne Frank travelling exhibition took place in Vilnius on 20 October 2016 In an interview with Labas Rytas Lietuva TV the head of the Pedagogical Department of the Vilniaus University of Applied Sciences said that "The exhibition is a connection between the past and the present It provides each of us with the opportunity to find out why we sometimes give in to bullying "[...] there are more and more people who are interested in Jewish history people are no longer afraid to talk about the role of Lithuania in the Holocaust but we must talk about it and discuss it.”  Speeches were also given by the rector of Vilniaus University of Applied Sciences the Ambassadors of Israel and the Netherlands in Lithuania representatives from the Jewish Community of Lithuania Teacher seminars and peer-guide trainings with many participants are also under way 12-16 students are engaged in every session the trainers prepare the participants for their role as tour guides Both the teachers and the students have found these trainings very useful:  For more information on the activities organised in Lithuania, please contact our local partner or the Anne Frank House project coordinator Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam PR3 Simona Kaminskaite of Patrol Squadron (VP) 16 returned to her native country with the squadron as part of a detachment of a P-8A Poseidon aircraft to Å iauliai International Airport in Lithuania before her 17th birthday to begin a new life with her father The detachment to Lithuania is part of her second deployment with the squadron "I never expected to visit Lithuania with the Navy.When I heard we were going When asked what she was most excited for her shipmates to experience and our rural countryside is beautiful this time of year." The two-week detachment is part of the U.S Navy's forward presence for continued support to NATO allies in the Baltic region Kaminskaite's contributions are unique within the squadron "She has been instrumental to the success of the detachment using her language skills and cultural knowledge to act as an ambassador for the squadron and the U.S Kaminskaite has used some of her down time to reconnect with family and friends in her hometown "I am very appreciative for the time to visit my family," she said of the opportunity "They are very proud of my accomplishments since joining the Navy." Photo by Viktoras Kapočius/Lithuanian Central State Archives If I had been in New York in the 1970s, when I bought Movie Journal on Broadway at Broome Street I would have met the lanky figure of Jonas Mekas there where he had a studio in one of the loft buildings that his friend and Fluxus leading man George Maciunas had converted into artists’ cooperatives In the Fluxhouse Coop at number 80 he ran his own cinemathèque and film archive a long-standing dream that had finally gained a foothold In the evening he would visit a theater show of the Wooster Group in The Performing Garage or on the corner of Wooster and Broome a multimedia jazz concert in The Kitchen SoHo was not yet the chic shopping district that it is today but an artists’ village where the lofts had been discovered not only as a studio just like the filmmakers who lived and worked there And when he met Jackie Kennedy on the street she too would greet him with open arms—the charming appearance in her bright red coat had a soft spot for him If George Maciunas could be called the “Father of SoHo,” responsible for the gentrification of the old factory district Mekas’s Movie Journal had the tone of a born New Yorker so easily he moved in the art scene of those days that I understood that this had been preceded by an eventful history might also be less surprising: most cultural communities need outsiders to bring about revolutions Mekas was such an outsider with a special biography a hamlet not far from the Lithuanian-Russian border about 15 kilometers from the larger Biržai and when he didn’t work on his parents’ farm The young Mekas was a student and a poet during first the Soviet invasion of 1940 (as a result of Stalin’s pact with Hitler) and then the occupation by the Germans (after what is known as Operation Barbarossa) Just before the Soviet troops were to march into Lithuania again he fled to Germany with his younger brother Adolfas convinced they would be able to study in Vienna where both brothers were put to work as forced labor in an airplane factory he and his brother did not want to return to a Lithuania that was part of the Soviet Union although their parents and three brothers and a sister were left behind there They stayed for years as Displaced Persons in German refugee camps in both the British and American zones until they were able to emigrate to the United States in 1949 Mekas became the tireless key figure and hero of New York’s avant-garde cinema editor-in-chief and publisher of the cult magazine Film Culture and founder of The Film-Makers’ Coop and the legendary Anthology Film Archives He was friends with all the greats of what became known as the New American Cinema and with many celebrities for whom he had a fine nose (he even counted Jackie Kennedy among his friends) all circling around the theme of remembrance Mekas was obsessed with preserving memories from an early age. Before he documented his life on celluloid almost every day in America, he kept a written diary, also during the war years. Parts of this diary, which he wrote from between July 19, 1944, and August 20, 1955, were published in an English translation in 1991 as I Had Nowhere to Go Mekas recalled his youth in Lithuania: the arbitrariness of the deportations under the Soviet regime the relative calm during the German occupation his fear of being betrayed for his modest contribution to underground activities he made a film about his first visit to Lithuania after his emigration in which his mother turns out to still live under primitive conditions in the Lithuanian countryside The lack of running water in the small farm shocks the New York bohemian although he likes to avoid willingly adapting to the peasant life he once left he told the story of his emigration to the US and the first impressions of the promised land that he had captured with his Bolex camera Not necessarily to watch them until the end but just to get some antidote for all those propulsive inescapable films that don’t give you the time or the freedom to mirror your own thoughts or memories Watching his films is an intimate gathering as if he has shot his images only for you and projected them on a pale white wall in his own loft exclusively for you Mekas continued to write poems in Lithuanian all his life He wrote his collection Semeniškių idilės (translated as Idylls of Semeniškiai) in 1947 Mekas sings of his native land in a stream of lyrical memories: of the landscape It is an attempt to hold onto what his memories are in danger of losing their grip on a nostalgia that still works in the English translation the lost paradise of youth never seems far away when Mekas begins to narrate A paradise abruptly taken away from him by the events of the Great World History in which Lithuania was a plaything of two totalitarian powers I’ve always perceived it as a beautifully clear life story As I read and heard more about it over the years it added urgency to Mekas’s status as an experimental filmmaker: exile This was a man who had been through something and nevertheless devoted his life unselfishly to a vulnerable cinema The writer of Movie Journal did not come out of nowhere His cinematographic playfulness took place on the surface of a rough canvas I wasn’t the only one who thought about it that way Especially in his last years—he died on January 23 at 96 years old—Mekas was venerated in cinephile circles as a saint which had finally emerged from the Soviet yoke and embraced their prodigal son Like everyone else, I saw no reason to doubt Mekas’s story: hadn’t he written it all down in his diaries and told it in his films? Until Michael Casper, in the prestigious The New York Review of Books questioned the part of the story that had taken place during the Second World War the man who wanted to share everything with his audience It put a bomb under the intimacy that I thought I could believe in during the screenings of his film If Michael Casper had not come up with the idea of setting up a new historical research project under the title “Life During Wartime: Biržai and the Holocaust in the Lithuanian Heartland” that would examine the period through Mekas’s diaries and films he would have escaped the verification of his memories Casper must have seen Mekas initially as the perfect informant for his project he was still lucid and approachable and also known as someone who had meticulously documented his personal life But after extensive archive research in Lithuania and several conversations and exchanges of correspondence Casper felt he had to contradict Mekas’s memories he identified omissions that he did not want to attribute to innocent forgetfulness Although Mekas stubbornly tried to stick with his memories or was spurred on by Casper’s irrefutable documents to adjust them just as stubbornly which for 70 years seemed like that of a reliable witness to Lithuania in wartime lost credibility per stretching meter—at least in Casper’s eyes The New York Review of Books published Casper’s findings in the issue of June 7, 2018, under the title “I Was There.” In the sidebar the article is linked to the reissue of I Had Nowhere to Go (initiated by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, who made a film about it) and three recent editions: A Dance with Fred Astaire and the first edition of the war diaries of Mekas’s brother Adolfas The Adolfas Diaries Book 1: September 1941–December 1946 and The Adolfas Diaries Book 2: February 1947–October 1949 nowhere do you read the intention of a book review of his public role as someone who witnessed the horrors that took place in Lithuania between 1939 and 1945 that Mekas should be honored as an important and selfless witness to this is a witness who doesn’t have his facts straight The chronology of events such as Mekas remembers in diaries and his films does not match the data he has on hand as a historian In certain cases this is not difficult to correct and provide years with the right events Many of the events from Mekas’s stories that cannot be traced in archives or documents turn out to be very difficult to link to dates In Mekas’s mind they have been canonized into the unshakable novel of his life expressed in a stream of recurring anecdotes but it is clear that Casper wonders whether all this clumping together of Mekas’s memories is not a carefully erected smokescreen You can attribute that to the professional mistrust of the historian but I can’t escape the impression that Casper’s sense of detection has gradually been fed by irritation why does Mekas seem to systematically avoid one event in the anecdotes he so often recites: the fate of his neighbors—the Lithuanian Jews From Jonas Mekas, Shiver of Memory Copyright © 2022 by the author and reprinted with permission of DoppleHouse Press Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving where Jonas grew up in a farming family with four brothers and a sister the loyal fans of the Lithuanian artist travel here from all over the world “A few times the Japanese have come and said: ‘We know that Jonas is from here and we want to see that village.’ But that village no longer exists [...] We were amazed that people would come and take pictures of the grass where Jonas’ native village used to be,” says Indra Drevinskaitė a representative of the Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Study Centre in Biržai This is how the idea of erecting a memorial stone to Jonas Mekas in Semeniškiai was born Drevinskaitė found his e-mail address and wrote to him asking where he would like the stone to stand who had never had any contact with Jonas before says she did not expect the artist to write back I would like the stone to stand where my childhood bed used to stand,” Drevinskaitė recalls The stone with Jonas Mekas’ signature and the hat that had become his symbol was unveiled in Semeniškiai on December 1 not exactly in the place where the artist’s childhood bed used to stand The Mekas family lived in two places in the village “I wish you a very good day,” Jonas wrote on a large white sheet of paper on the occasion of the unveiling of his memorial stone in Semeniškiai although “he wrote that he was leaving the door open for his arrival” It came half a year too late because Jonas had written the wrong address,” she smiles But the Biržai Public Library had already received one parcel from Jonas Mekas before that “We neither asked for it nor thought that we could receive something from him he wrote and asked if we would be interested in his ‘junk’ from New York,” says Drevinskaitė we received a 35-kilogram shipment from him.” Jonas sent to Biržai his carefully catalogued correspondence letters addressed to him and his brother Adolfas as well as his collected publications about Biržai Scraps of unknown newspapers and dates also came to us,” says Evaldas Timukas who is now researching Jonas Mekas’ archive This “junk” became the basis for the establishment of the Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Study Centre at the Biržai Public Library in 2020 and important items were donated to Biržai after Jonas’ death by his son Sebastian who visited his father’s birthplace several times he has returned and found home again,” Sebastian wrote in the centre’s guestbook the urn with Jonas’ remains was buried in Semeniškiai Cemetery Jonas himself wanted to be buried here and thus return to his homeland which he was forced to leave at a young age he returned here with the help of the archive Drevinskaitė shows the hat of Jonas Mekas sent by his son from the US This hat first visited Biržai on Mekas’ head He was immortalised wearing it in a famous photograph taken at the Biržai Evangelical Reformed Church parsonage The artist grew up in an Evangelical Reformed family When Jonas moved to Biržai to study at the local gymnasium and his brother Adolfas started studying at the Biržai School of Crafts and Trade the brothers lived in the parsonage of the Evangelical Reformed Church “We know the exact room in the parsonage where the brothers lived went to the parsonage and asked to be allowed to sit in that room for a bit [...] There may not be anything authentic there anymore the same view of the lake from the window,” Drevinskaitė says Jonas hid a typewriter with which he used to print anti-Nazi pamphlets Nobody knew about Jonas’ underground activities when he could not find the typewriter in the usual place managed to get documents for Jonas and Adolfas to leave Lithuania and go study in Vienna Although Adolfas did not participate in the underground activities They were the youngest of the family of several children and left Lithuania together Adolfas’ widow also gifted the Biržai Centre three of his diaries where he described this period “Adolfas writes about his reflections while walking along the shore of Lake Širvėna in Biržai – to leave Lithuania or not to leave what will happen to this girl?” Drevinskaitė says Jonas was 21 and Adolfas was 19 when on July 12 they left Biržai for Panevėžys and from there continued their journey abroad Jonas and Adolfas found themselves in a displaced persons’ camp where they were called to work in a Chicago bakery when the brothers saw New York from the deck of a ship they were so impressed by it that they decided to stay there the brothers bought their first camera with borrowed money and started documenting their daily lives giving birth to the so-called poetic documentary cinema Although Jonas Mekas soon became famous and joined the circle of contemporary artists in New York “I am a farmer’s child from Lithuania,” he often introduced himself Drevinskaitė points to the flowers painted by Jonas on a greeting he sent to the people of Biržai “He was drawing those flowers all his life Jonas Mekas’ nieces told us that these were buttercups from his childhood Jonas used to draw them in different colours,” she says a Lithuanian photographer living in the US This was a symbol of his shepherding days in Semeniškiai as a shepherd “always had food in his bag” Much less is known about Adolfas Mekas than about Jonas although the former is “in no way inferior to his brother” say the representatives of the Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Study Centre “This is because Adolfas turned to academia in 1971 and taught at Bard College until 2004 while Jonas continued to make experimental films and interacted with all the famous artists in New York,” Timukas explains Adolfas would have celebrated his centenary the Biržai Centre aims to make him more widely recognised “It’s not easy because there is less material about him and there is automatically less interest in him But he is certainly worthy of the same attention as Jonas Mekas,” Drevinskaitė says .st1{fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;fill:#2a2a2a}By Edward Sieger | The Express-TimesBeer: Brewery Rinkuskiai; the Birzai region of Lithuania Rinkuskiai brews Before-After specifically for South Carolina-based importer Before-After has been in the works for about three years Aiko imports about 40 brands for the American market And the silly label that reveals a different image depending on how you turn the bottle was designed specifically to attract buyers Before-After will not be found on the brewery’s website as it’s brewed specifically for the American market There is just enough of an aftertaste that sticks in the back of your throat but I’m willing to bet my princely paycheck that it has something to do with the hearty and robust 12 percent ABV The flavor is full and strong and certainly not for the timid Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025) © 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us) The material on this site may not be reproduced except with the prior written permission of Advance Local Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here Ad Choices Another man on the plane was taken to a hospital with serious injuries The plane was a self-built replica of the late 1920s Anbo II single-engine monoplane According to the Latvian public broadcaster LSM the Lithuanian plane had stopped at Priekuļi airfield but crashed following engine failure a little before 13:30 on Sunday Latvian police are investigating the crash The plane was built by a group of enthusiasts several years ago and financed by Šabrinskas The military trainer aircraft Anbo II was designed by the aviation engineer Antanas Gustaitis in the 1920s He designed nine Anbo planes that were used in aviation training and reconnaissance operations which means “Antanas wants to be in the air” Several days ago, I watched a virtual presentation of the book Forgotten Evil by the Dutch filmmaker Peter Delpeut. Delpeut had been a great fan of the Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas, until he read a 2018 article in the New York Review of Books by the American historian Michael Casper in which the latter accused Mekas of having ”forgotten” the murder of 2,400 Jews in Biržai The whole basis of Casper’s accusation is not that Mekas directly participated in killings but that he was involved in anti-Semitic publications and without having written anything anti-Semitic himself that he distorted his memories in order to come out as a victim of Soviet and Nazi occupations The article by Casper destroyed Delpeut’s adoration of Mekas and this is the core issue of his own book The presentation was to me another example of how reflecting on a distant past without sufficiently understanding the context and also how risky it is to pass any judgement afterwards when the course of history is already known and it is quite easy to discern good from bad decisions The basic premise of Casper’s article in the New York Review of Books is that Mekas who lived in a hamlet 26 kilometers away from Biržai which had then a population of not more than two dozen inhabitants must have known that a third of the town population of Biržai was murdered and so why did he not mention this in his own reflections on the past he became an editor of the local publication Naujosios Biržų žinios which was a publication of the anti-Semite Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) and later of a similarly anti-Semitic publication in Panevėžys he must have known about the campaign against the Jews and he might have edited anti-Semitic articles And although Casper acknowledges that there is no evidence that Mekas was in any way involved in the massacre and he himself did not write any anti-Semitic texts or refuses to remember what happened at a time when he was nineteen years of age The young adult Mekas lived in extremely turbulent and upsetting times when his country was occupied by Soviet troops only a week after the first wave of deportations to Siberia in which some of his friends seem to have disappeared the Nazis were initially seen as liberators thought that by buttering up to the Nazis the latter would grant them independence The sad fact was that all this was totally useless: Lithuanians were not considered Aryans and were bound to be deported East as Lithuania was supposed to be part of the Lebensraum and would become German lands The incredible speed with which the Lithuanian Jews were exterminated (by the end of 1941 about 60 percent of the Lithuanian Jews had already been killed while Jews in Amsterdam were not yet forced to wear a Yellow Star) can only be explained by a lethal combination of factors including the unheroic loss of independence to the Soviets in 1940 and the deportations a week before the German invasion the cultural and spiritual separation of the Lithuanian and Jewish Lithuanian communities and the shrewd tactics of the Germans by which they organised the killings but let most of the killing itself be done by local Lithuanians while they themselves oversaw the events from a distance this period must have been fundamentally traumatic especially if he witnessed the mass murder of the Jewish population of Biržai indeed the most natural method of surviving and remaining sane would be to forget – to such an extent that the memory would indeed be gone as if it never happened There are several instances in Mekas’ work that indicate that this “survivalist forgetting” might be the real state of affairs Mekas mentions that he is afraid to go to a certain pond in the German woods: “The slightest movement on the dark surface of the pond wakening up memories of Astravas and Biržai.” he writes that he is staring across a “quiet New England lake” “I suddenly had a feeling that my past had caught up with my present.. I was sitting there and trembling with memory” Both entries could refer to the fact that he did see the mass grave near the large Biržai lake where the blood-soaked earth must have kept moving for quite a while because of the decomposing bodies of 2,400 victims What I find the most disturbing about Caspar’s article is that he judges Mekas afterwards and even though there is not a shred of proof that Mekas did anything other than be compliant which in most cases 95 percent of the population would do he still accuses Mekas and leaves sufficient room for doubt He ignores the fact that if Mekas knew what happened to the Jews he does not take the possibility into account that the young adult Mekas was going through such a turbulent whirlwind of emotions that certain deeply emotional and impressive events were repressed in order to be able to live on and remain sane In other words: it is easy to judge a person while sitting in your comfortable chair at a research centre in the United States instead of being a living witness to occupation murder and the total disintegration of any structured reality The presentation of the book by Delpeut was a continuation of this discrepancy Based on an article by this American scholar whether well-informed or not but clearly rather judgmental the judgement is extended by both the author of the book only one impression remains – Mekas is guilty not because he didn’t do anything deliberately or unconsciously distorted his memory or was so hurt by what happened that his mind blocked the bad memories in order to be able to live on and be productive Considering the fact that he was an artist and probably a very sensitive person the latter seems the most realistic – and the filmmaker Paul Delpeut should have known Professor Robert van Voren is the director of the Andrei Sakharov Research Centre for Democratic Development at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of LRT Lithuanian beekeepers feared that drought would kill this year’s harvest but it is so plentiful that they struggle to store all the honey says he has taken 100 kilograms of honey out of each of his hives this year big processors are offering half the price of last year “This year they offered 1.6 euro per kilogram My brother and I have discussed it and decided that we’re not going to sell we don’t have any extra jobs,” complains Jasiukėnas Smaller beekeepers try to sell their products at farmers’ markets head of the Pakruojis District Beekeepers’ Association says that honey is now sold at 5 euros per kilogram It is almost half the price it was at the beginning of June Beekeeping expert Tautvydas Vaičiūnas says that the honey crisis is being felt across Europe due to overproduction Imports from non-EU countries have also increased: China I may add that there is a considerable amount of adulteration of honey from these major exporting countries,” notes Valčiūnas Beekeepers are looking for more support and assistance from the government and are asking for direct payments Beekeeper Jasiukėnas says that if these are not forthcoming “We would like to see more attention to beekeeping from the EU [...] The second thing is that there is not a lot of support for beekeepers,” he says is aimed at helping build new beehives and expand production “There could be some kind of payment per hive At least 10-20 euros per hive,” says Jasiukėnas “Nowhere in Europe do they speak about support for beekeepers “Beekeepers get a special support for feeding bees during the winter where every year we allocate a little more than half a million [euros] for the purchase of sugar or syrup.” apiaries create far more value than just honey If beekeeping farms are drastically reduced “Bee products are only 20 percent of the value created by bees but other sectors of the economy too,” he stresses the number of bee farms has nearly doubled in the last few years there are as many as 11,000 beekeepers and around 220,000 bee colonies “Tomas’s documents and personal belongings were not found – it’s possible he had already been searched by the enemy.” which showed a body bag lying on the floor Jara added: “Lithuanians don’t leave their own behind The information was also confirmed by Valentėlis’ father He said a ceremony would take place in Kyiv after which the ashes would be brought back to Lithuania had previously lived in the United Kingdom before joining the Ukrainian International Legion in 2024 He was killed while carrying out a combat operation in the Kupiansk district in north-eastern Ukraine He had been in the country for less than six months The successful recovery of the body was also reported by Blue/Yellow a Lithuanian non-governmental organisation supporting Ukraine “We express our sincere gratitude to Ukraine’s special forces and their commander Despite the difficult conditions and artillery fire the operation was carried out with the highest level of professionalism and without any casualties,” said Blue/Yellow co-founder Jonas Ohman in a statement posted on social media the body was located in an area close to Russian positions,” Ohman later told LRT TV on Wednesday “There was some fighting during the extraction the Russians pushed back and the man was simply killed,” he added The International Legion previously made an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the body Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda also expressed his condolences following Valentėlis’ death “Ukrainians are fighting and dying for freedom Ukraine’s freedom is Europe’s freedom – it is also Lithuania’s freedom brave volunteer who went to fight for Ukraine and Lithuania,” the president said in a statement Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said that Valentėlis would be honoured but indeed – it will be something similar to the situation involving the fallen volunteer Tadas Tumas We will likely consider something along those lines because he is a citizen of Lithuania and as such we certainly want to and must take care of him,” the minister said the views of Valentėlis’ family were also being taken into account Her sentiments were echoed by the chair of the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee “Our deepest condolences to the family and truly to this hero who died fighting – also for our freedom we will consider what actions can be taken Valentėlis had previously been officially listed as missing in action He was among more than 60,000 people considered missing in Ukraine – the majority of whom are presumed dead another Lithuanian volunteer is also missing the only confirmed Lithuanian killed in combat in Ukraine was Tadas Tumas though the cause of death has not been disclosed Correction: The number of missing people in Ukraine has been updated from 30,000 to 60,000 to reflect the February 2025 figures provided by the Ukrainian authorities Joana Burokienė works as a librarian in the village of Vadokliai While usually readers come to a library to take out a book Joana mounts her bike and cycles to another village a few kilometres away with a bag of about ten books The reader lives in a remote place and cannot come herself due to old age she always transports the books by bicycle And she has been doing so for more than forty years Joana jokes that there is no such thing as bad weather or bad clothes even though it’s not the most comfortable thing to wear on a bicycle so she can pick herself what books they’ll like the recipient of the books Joana is bringing she would not be able to read as much as she does now She has difficulty walking because of her disability does not own a car and cannot imagine life without reading The librarian delivers books to readers who live far from the library people would be left with only a TV set between the four walls They would be trapped in their homes,” says Joana the rest of the time she works in the library librarians are assisted by volunteers who deliver books to people’s homes She says she started volunteering in order to get people in rural areas to read more “There exists a book that can make anyone a reader And I’m just trying to help make sure that this book does not pass people by,” she says The director of the Biržai Library says the help of volunteer book couriers is very important “We have 82 volunteer book carriers who serve about 150 readers almost 4,000 books were given out last year,” says Vilmantė Vorienė Libraries deliver books not only to readers who live in remote locations or cannot come for other reasons They receive requests from Lithuanians who live abroad but also a show of the biggest music stars Marijaus Mikutavičiaus and Povila Meškėla will be intertwined with old traditions on the Midsummer weekend Justin Jarutis will invite you to a unique golf and music festival and NBA stars Domantas Sabonis and Luka Dončičius will compete in the capital "Leon Somov & Jazzu" celebrating their 20th anniversary will return to the stage for one evening at the beginning of the first summer month the thunderous performance of "ba." and "Solo Ensamblio" will try to paint the temporary capital black and foreign music legends will shine in Biržai district near Kilučiai Lake.  our country will be visited for the first time by YUNGBLUD. who will appear in the courtyard of Vilnius Lukiškii prison whose real name is Dominic Richard Harrison stands out in today's music world with his rebellious personality and infectious energy and the artist's works collect hundreds of millions of listens on music platforms so the audience is sure to have a fiery rock and roll party in the very center of the capital Ignas Pociūnas, known as "Daddy Was A Milkman", is preparing for a magical concert and invites you to celebrate the beginning of the hottest season of the year at Pažaislis Monastery in Kaunas. The multiple MAMA award winner makes no secret that this will be her first concert where fans will hear previously unseen songs from the new studio album "I can't imagine the beginning of summer without a performance in Pazaisli and I'm really looking forward to this meeting so we want to share the colors of the new "Daddy Was A Milkman" album right here," admits the artist which has been playing on the stage for 28 years invites you to three concerts in June: on June 6 in Kaunas' "Oldman" courtyard on June 13 in Vilnius' "Vasaros teras" and in Palanga's "Oldman" space or tell what happens when we all get together Everyone who has been there knows very well remembers and is probably waiting just as much as we are," the group members say Capital cities In Vingo Park one of the most anticipated electronic music shows of this year called "One Night Only" will take place where the legendary Lithuanian duo "Leon Somov & Jazzu" will be revived for one evening The innovative drone show piloted by the international team "Light A Sky" will lift the audience into a euphoric state with the sound of well-known hits and Leon Somov and Justė Arlauskaitė-Jazzu will celebrate a special anniversary on stage - the group was formed exactly 20 years ago British music star Sting returns to the country's largest "Žalgiris" arena in Kaunas where he will present the "My Songs" program of his best songs The newspaper "The Times" called this longest concert tour in the artist's history a "master class" and emphasized that "Sting remains undoubtedly the highest-ranking artist with an exceptionally large catalog of world-conquering hits." Giordana Angi The famous music collective Postmodern Jukebox also known as the "time machine of pop music" will hold its world performance of the anniversary tour "10" at the Compensa event hall in Vilnius the group will also hold its 1000th performance and the audience is waiting for a colorful and inspiring journey into the musical universe of "Postmodern Jukebox" where modern hits and classic pop music sound through jazz swing, motown and other popular musical styles of the 1920s The American band "Five Finger Death Punch" will perform in Lithuania for the first time this summer the Hungarian metal band "Ektomorf" and the American heavy metal band "Ice Nine Kills" will visit the fans of our country's heavy metal genre who will perform at the Žalgiris Arena in Kaunas will perform their most famous hits and present their latest album called "AfterLife" our country will be visited by four world-famous stars - Suzi Quatro who will perform on the lake peninsula of Kilučiai village who in her time pushed even Michael Jackson from the top of the charts who is visiting Lithuania for the first time June 22 (Klaipeda) who has chosen the summer equinox for his spectacular performance "Summer Night" invites you to meet under the open air at Klaipėda's summer stage The organizers of the event reveal that this artist's show will be distinguished by attention to aesthetics and atmosphere "Songs that have already become super hits and compositions by V Baumila that have not yet been heard will be played in the forest in one of the largest and most beautiful concert spaces in Lithuania," states the presentation of the show the "Farm On Fire" festival will be held for the third year in a row at the organic farmhouse "Farmers Circle" near Ukmergė inviting you to immerse yourself in the experience of traditions The festival stage will feature the songs of Lithuanian music greats Andrias Mamontov Marijaus Mikutavičius and rock legends with Povila Meškėla in the lead there will be plenty of different activities such as the pursuit of a burning sculpture record various gastronomic experiences and many other activities to welcome the shortest night of the year which is preparing for the selection of the Paris Olympic Games invites you to celebrate Midsummer's Eve with basketball they will meet the formidable Slovenia in a control match we will see two NBA stars on different sides of the court - Domantas Sabonis playing for the Sacramento Kings and Luka Doncic playing for the Dallas Mavericks because rockers "ba." and electronic music group "Solo Ansamblis" are trying to organize a "black attack in the heart of Lithuania" in the yard of the Victory Factory Music lovers will also see the show in a unique space punk ska group "dr Green'' post-punk ir industrial Akli and disc jockeys Valdagger and Mario Moretti Singer and songwriter Justinas Jarutis organizes a one-day festival at one of the most beautiful golf clubs in Lithuania where he aims to combine his life - music - and his passion - golf - into a one-day experience The JJ golf tournament will start the festival at the European Center Golf Club the performances of our country's music stars Vaidas Baumila GJan and the band "Garbanotas" will crown it "Although a very young man as he realised that this is not just a war in Ukraine but also our fight for freedom," Nausėda told journalists Wednesday like dissidents who knew what awaited them who were aware about all the dangers and threats and still with dignity and determination did their duty which they took on in their life," said Nausėda Valentėlis was killed in battle in Ukraine His body was retrieved from the battlefield by Ukraine’s Special Forces with assistance of Lithuanian and Ukrainian NGOs The 20-year-old from Biržai had served in the Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine since August 2024 His body was brought to Lithuania on 19 April A private funeral will be held respecting the family’s privacy The death toll was the highest in the country since the start of the pandemic Some 314 cases were recorded in Vilnius County The biggest clusters of new infections surround the administrations of local municipalities in Biržai District Outbreaks have also been recorded in 16 hospitals – in Švenčionys Clusters have also been recorded in care homes across the county the backlog of untraced cases has increased to 1,100 meaning that health officials are yet to analyse where the people got infected with the virus Read more: Health officials under pressure: instead of funding, we were told to ‘optimise’ Some 28,262 people have been infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic 21,339 people are still ill with the virus A total of 235 people have died of Covid-19 in Lithuania and another 80 coronavirus-infected people have died of other causes Some 78,306 people remain in isolation and 846 are hospitalised The country has since June 1 registered 432 cases of coronavirus infection contracted abroad A total of 1,132,514 tests for Covid-19 have been carried out in Lithuania so far, including 13,092 over the past 24 hours.Read more: Lithuanian healthcare system close to collapse, doctors warnCORRECTION: Due to an editing error the earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the number of active coronavirus cases Among Queen Mathilde’s ancestors were the Sapiehas (Sapiegos) Queen Mathilde’s Lithuanian links come from her maternal grandparents a distant relative of the Polish noble Komorowski family “One branch [of the Komorowski family] acquired estates in the territory of present-day Lithuania in the 17th century One of their ancestors became the owner of the Kavoliškis estate near Rokiškis This branch of the Komorowski family was called Kamarauskis or Kamarauskas in Lithuanian until 1940,” says Karpaviečienė Queen Mathilde’s maternal grandmother was Princess Sofia Maria Sapieha one of the most prominent noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania the house of Sapieha had two branches – the Kodenian Although Queen Mathilde descended from the Kodenian branch of the Sapiehas she is related to both branches through various kinship ties The Spiehas reached the pinnacle of their power in the 16th century Lew Sapieha (Leonas Sapiega) became the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania He was called by his contemporaries the “guardian of the fatherland” the Third Statute of Lithuania was published in 1588 which served as the constitution of the time Kazimierz Leon Sapieha (Kazimieras Leonas Sapiega) a Vice-Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Faculty of Law of Vilnius University was established in 1641 on his initiative He also donated a huge collection of law books to the university’s library through the Sapiehas Queen Mathilde is also related to other noble families of the Grand Duchy: the Czartoryski (Čartoriskiai) the Pac (Pacai) She is also a distant descendant of the Gediminas dynasty which founded Vilnius and ruled Lithuania and Poland from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century “This is a very important circumstance that we should be proud of – that Lithuania has a very long tradition of statehood It began to develop international relations including through marriage policy,” says Karpavičienė is working with organisations in the Nordic country where people are happy to adopt Lithuanian dogs “For a small provincial organisation like ours finding good home for [puppies] is difficult but we want to save them and to know that they will be treated and taken care of,” says Andželika Jaškuvienė the head of the NGO ‘Mažas draugas’ (‘Tiny Friend’) Preparing a dog for the trip takes several months and attention from veterinary doctors All the expenses are paid by the would-be owners in Finland “Purebred pets or those that look like they could be purebred do not usually stay long in Lithuanian shelters Mixed-bred or old dogs do,” says Gitana Latvėnaitė Finnish organisations even arrange trips for Lithuanian volunteers to see how the pets have adapted to their homes in the new country She used to take care of a dog who subsequently was sent to Finland “I teared up when I saw it sitting on an armchair in a nice room with nice furniture,” she says Volunteers were particularly touched by the story of one dog that was neglected and tortured in Lithuania was tied up with a rope,” Jaškuvienė recalls with a young owner who took it to dog school and now Rex is a professional tracker dog.” Almost 300 dogs from Lithuania have already been sent to Finland Geltonas Namelis (Yellow House) is a clothing shop in Biržai It is full of customers the moment it opens in the morning It sells both new clothes and second-hand items but it is the latter that the shoppers are after half of us would be walking around barefoot and naked if it wasn’t for that,” says Algirdas Because they are cheaper and of better quality,” adds Inga The business has had tough moments in recent years Not only middle-income buyers are coming to shop for second-hand clothes in Yellow House in another shop I would have bought maybe only two items’,” says Rasa Varekojienė says the demand for second-hand clothes is growing This is because people are currently confused about the future new clothes are already too expensive for them But the consumer feels that they need to buy something So they are satisfying that need in the market of cheaper goods and second-hand shops would be the place to go,” she explains A surge in the second-hand clothing sector is well-reflected in statistics the turnover of such retailers has almost doubled Not only are people buying more second-hand clothes they are also selling items they no longer use head of the company Resources for Sustainable Development as more and more young people believe that they are contributing to a less polluted environment “We used to associate second-hand things with some kind of deprivation and it has really taken time to educate and entice people who can afford just about anything but are conscious enough to know they don’t always have to buy new,” according to Nausėdė “What we are seeing today is a really big change,” she adds Economists believe that if high inflation persists competition will increase in the low-cost clothing sector As people start buying more second-hand textiles shops selling new clothes will be forced to keep prices down The bear spent the night traversing the Šimonių forest some 50 kilometres from the Latvian border The journey was also recorded by another camera set up by hunters to monitor the population of animals Read more: 'Don't look it in the eye'. What to do if you spot a bear in the Baltics there have been several bear sightings in Kupiškis District as well as in neighbouring regions “A bear in Biržai District has even been spotted with two younglings,” he added because they used to live here in the olden days.” according to environmental scientist Antanas Slučka forests in Lithuania are too sparse to support a local bear population Bears that are spotted in Lithuania usually come from Belarus and Latvia “and the Baltic country with the most brown bears is Estonia” Brown bears are considered an extinct species in Lithuania.Read more: Estonian police call off search for bears in capital Tallinn Stichijos Festival in Kupiškis. Photos Gintarė Baseckaitė “Stichijos” (“Elements”) is a creativity and arts festival that does not have an equivalent in the entire Lithuania, and is aimed at promoting the name of the city of Kupiškis the third iteration of the “Stichijos” event arrived to the Kupiškis lagoon with a resonating name “Mother-in-law’s Tongue” The event was dedicated to celebrating the centenary of Lithuania’s independence earth and air – that reflected the specific periods of the country’s history and creative activities Kupiškis Culture Centre wrote in a press release Water – "the area focusing on Smetona (Inter War President) sentiments" This romantic memories scene was enveloped in the sounds of the Smetona-era: the music of Danielius Dolskis which was presented with a modern twist by DJ Minvydas from the Kupiškis youth centre Songs about Lithuania and love were sung by Kupiškis' youth centre Salamiestis division country music group „LyjA" (led by Almantas Totoris) Subtle romance songs were performed by Biržai regional Papilis culture house female ensemble "Sentimentai" Smetona era music was spread by Panevėžys city "Šaltinis" gymnasium retro group "Šaltinėlis" The main act was performed by the talented Kaunas music theatre's performer Andrius Apšega while Zorian Ivanec and Saulė Girdzijauskaitė taught lindy hop moves to visitors Water area invited to visit the "Konrad's teahouse" participate in the "Just like 100 years ago" photo-shoot an education programme "Become the captain of the centenary ships" learn the subtleties of the arts of binding and butter churning spend jovial time fishing for prises in the aquarium and taste some of the fish soup made by the volunteers from the Kupiškis youth centre the teahouse and the entire zone was created by Justina Skrupskytė from the Kupiškis youth centre Earth – "the forest brothers' area" The activities in the zone presented a very sensitive period to Lithuania after the Second World War songs and lifestyle of the resistance fighters The scene for the area was made from materials collected from nature and created by the Kupiškis culture centre's artist Ingrida Rudzinskienė performed by locals Viktoras Bražas ir Matas Sankauskas bards Juozas Mulaučius ir Vygantas Kazlauskas multitalented composer and performer Raminta Naujanytė – Bjelle This area was rich in creative activities educational and historical programmes as well as power games "Partizanų antspaudai" (the signs for the forest brothers) educational programme which was led by Kupiškis; ethnographical museum representative Miglė Zakarauskaitė Tent villages and activities taking place in them were co-organized with a group of likeminded people from Ukmergė club "Brothers of the forest" Kupiškis 504 infantry company's soldiers invited to take part in formation practice Viewers were also tempted by the authentic guerrilla dishes – military porridge Air – "Seaside Grannies area"This year the volunteers in the air area invited everyone to a Soviet era resort a popular destination to which many rushed to relax where parents took their children to the pier to watch the sunset and listen to music of bygone music stars Participant of the „Stichijos" event had the opportunity to listen to legendary primadonna including Nijolė Tallat Kelpšaitė and Irena Ulvydaitė Snabaitienė This scene was also a home to the debut of the Kupiškis' culture centre female ensemble The area was craftily decorated by florist from the Salamiestis city Jolanta Kovičienė The viewer were transported directly to the Palanga pier a traditional street market taking place next to it with workshops of all kinds working tirelessly an exhibition of childhood photos brought by the visitors themselves called „Ember holiday" There were even two photo studios available – a childhood sentiment memorialising "the Ship of Palanga" and a contemporary studio that used air blowers Fire – "Freedom and progress area" The fire element represented the contemporary Lithuania – almost 30 years after it has been liberated and the symbols of free speech and freedom of creativity The fiery programme started accompanied by the sound of motorbikes and American cars which was organised with the help of Gintaras Songaila and Paulius Pranckūnas In earlier years "Rock Marches" were the first examples of freedom of speech which is why it was mostly rock music that was ringing on the scene of the artist Marius Skrupskis decorated in national attributes and 3D holograms Bands that played live included a local young band „Rockstars On Budgete" and bands "The Rocketshoes" ir „Rivercross" from Kaunas a local inhabitant and the creator of official "Stichijos" emblems Contemporary culture was represented by a highly regarded on YouTube rap group "8 Kambarys" and a dance group from Kaunas "AK Dance" (trained by Kristina Burneikienė) They were joined by a karate presentation of Gintautas Čepukaitis' trainees Modern fashion was presented by the joint model team "2KAR2" from Kupiškis and Panevėžys cities (taught by Karolina Anskinaitė) The "modern circus" isle invited to learn the art of juggling building a night torch and exercising your mind while pedalling a "reverse bicycle" Youngest participants could face their fears in the labyrinth "Light at the end of the tunnel: the end of the bogey man" while strength enthusiasts competed in car pulling competition Members of the fairer sex joined the abode of the henna painting master Viewers were able to take photos near the symbolic "freedom wings" After the activities „Stichijos" festival were over the skies of the lagoon housed the aero club acrobatic flight masters while the main stage presented the teams from all four elements areas and their activities The evening was crowned with a gala show from the 90s euro disco group "Joy" singer Donatas Montvydas and hiphop duo "Lilas and Innomine" The concert was then led by a lively duo – Džilda ir Orestas Vaigauskai (actors Ineta Stasiulytė ir Aistis Mickevičius) the island was lit up by the fire jugglers The celebration was closed by disco party led by DJ Dainiusha from Vilnius The organisers were happy not only with the excellent weather but also with the fact that the organising team was joined by over 70 local volunteers This year „Stichijos" received about six thousand visitors from all over Lithuania We are grateful to the main festival sponsors - Kupiškis district municipality and UAB „Durpeta" friends of the event - UAB „Dangų centras" The organisers are grateful to our digital sponsors: radio station „Radiocentras" VšĮ Kupiškio district tourism and business information center We are also deeply grateful to all the partners and supporters of the festival – Kupiškis' district municipality employees VšĮ Kupiškis' district tourism and business center Kupiškis district municipality primary healthcare centre Panevėžys' district Kupiškis' region Chief Police Commissariat all the guests and visitors enjoyed the multitude of creative activities and felt safe throughout the event cities and forests was not dictated by a navigation system or a map Will you dare to embark on a journey listening to mysterious whispers of mummies in church dungeons with hair still growing keep an amber or a mirror in your pocket - you'll see during this trip we will not suggest going to cemeteries the walls of which are directly marked by death gathering places of witches and devils and other mystical stops did you know that if you bring a devil sculpture to the latter you can visit the only exhibition in the world without a ticket Devilish feasts. A 40-meter-deep ravine in Trakai district. is considered not only one of the 100 most visited natural monuments in Europe, but also one of the most mystical - it is said that there is an ancient church here, and the midnight feast is still going on to this day damn Those visiting the nearby "sister" of Velniaduobė cannot fail to see the roof of the inn sticking out of the ground - it turns out that devils also liked to rustle there A bag of sins. Balti mythology park, Kretinga district. devils reign in the Underworld. A horned one awaits you here with a bag of your sins Pikuol "Witches and devils are one and the same thing they unite only when a person needs something to harm and otherwise they are forever sulking and trying to blind each other's eyes where in the XNUMXth century and the XNUMXth century Ave It is said that witches and devils also liked this place The so-called "Witch Hill" there is also one in Daugyveje (Radviliški district) - legends say that witches used to live on Raginėnai mound and frolic with the devils The most interesting thing is that people used to boil vodka and carry it up the mountain in order to make the witches fall on the side of Savon On a witch hunt. The witch's fir inspired the Pagėgiai Region Tourism Information Center to offer tourists an interesting attraction - a program for adults "Witch's Hammer 18+". Participants are invited to a witch hunt - according to a prepared scenario the characters selected by drawing lots take on the roles of judges executioners and perform the witch trial procedure based on real facts of Prussian historical times when there was no Shatriya mountain in the world The devils came up with an idea and built a mountain so that the whole village could be seen They placed two large cauldrons on it and filled it with resin The witches saw that mountain and wanted to take it away from the devils They flew to the devils on the mountain and said: "Give us that mountain we have nowhere to dance on Midsummer." The devils don't want to give it up and say: "We will give you the mountain only after a hundred years." The witches got angry and turned all the devils into trees Witches and cauldrons were thrown down the mountain Where there are now two hills next to each other Witches fly to the mountain on Midsummer night and dance On this, the most visited district of Telšiai of the Shatriya mound bread is worshiped and the witches' dish - kiunkė - is cooked Even several cities in our country could be declared "Lithuanian Twin Peaks" We present to you the mystical face of Kaunas Crematorium tours? Yes!Thematic excursions can be ordered not only in the cemeteries of big cities. Tours are also available In Kėdainiai crematorium - get to know the activities of the crematorium This crematorium also hosts artist exhibitions the custom of cremation in Baltic lands took hold in the XNUMXth century cremations were carried out until the XNUMXth century and in some areas even until the XNUMXth century Historians wrote that every Lithuanian family had its own altar in the sacred forests There she cremated the remains of dead family members and relatives with expensive clothes Lithuanian AtlantisCandles are traditionally lit during Vespers in Lithuanian cemeteries. In the only village of Margioniai in Dzūkija, the custom of gathering around a bonfire in the cemetery is still preserved. And in Kaunas, on All Saints' Day, candle flames flood Laisvės aleja for the event "River of Souls" years and the inhabitants of the flooded villages are dugniets you can see the cross blessed by the diving monks the remains of the helicopter that crashed a few years ago in the 8-meter depth The gates of hell.Suddenly opening sinkholes, swallowing both animals and high-rises. It would seem that such stories can only happen in the most mystical places of the world. The hitherto unseen face of Biržai is presented in an educational program "Microhistory. Mystical flavors of Biržai". During the program six mysterious stories that once happened in Biržai are paired and the highlight of the dinner is a different gourmet duo of beer and snacks matched to each story Velniakalnis can be visited in Biržai district There is a well-known legend that one poor resident of Rinkuškii came to Velniakalnis in search of treasure He was digging holes when a devil came out of one He says to the man from Rinku: if you want to get rich turn six times counter-clockwise and tug on the beard Now Velniakalnis is decorated with six sculptures of the devil Here you can meet the master of the mountain with a castle above his head and a treasure chest under his feet a costumed devil ready for dances and celebrations - with a tuxedo the mountain is also decorated with the devil's pet - a beautiful long-haired devil and a mischievous devil in front of the hill shows whose kingdom is here Now probably no one remembers why Panevėžys' signature dish is named after the nobleman of the manor tormenting his subordinates without restraint Čičinskas wanted to build a palace and ordered the serfs to carry a mountain of land with shovels he would order girls to climb a tree and cuckoo like cuckoos while he shot them Others say that Čičinskas rode into the church and lit a cigarette from a candle near the altar All the surrounding residents remember the death of that gentleman with relief a thunderbolt struck from a clear sky and killed the unsuspecting Mr And the mansion began to sink in the open mountain swamp and slowly sank for seven years There is still a hole at the top of the mound bulls bellowing and all sorts of other strange sounds coming from the ravine at night Panevezys in a restaurant In "Čičinskas" you can not only taste the steak with the same name but also read the legend carved on its walls and see the faces of the subjects of Čičinskas twisted in horror In the neighboring region of Kupiškis, 150 years ago, there was already a living tradition of serving buns with sauce to those gathered at funerals. That's how they were called - "helpful buns". At Adomynės manor, you can still enjoy these buns, which have also received a certificate of national culinary heritage, in baking education. Imprisoned ghosts. in Villa "Annapilis" where the Palanga resort museum now operates belonged to the mother of the last Count of Palanga the villa was called "Sofia" for a long time The legend of Palangiški tells about the love of the owner of the villa the countess had installed a secret room of "mirrors" above the attic where the summoned spirits could no longer escape from it and return to their own world It is also said that the ghosts of Sofia herself and her hanged maid used to play in the villa Local residents also bypassed the villa due to the sounds of the wind organ emanating from it It is said that Countess Sofija Tiškevičienė was in poor health and whenever she felt worse she went to listen to the sounds of the wind organ The Black Ghost. It is rare that anyone returns from Klaipėda without a photo with Black ghost – one of the most impressive and creepy sculptures in Lithuania It is said that in the XNUMXth century Hans He warned that the city might run out of grain and firewood and then he also suddenly disappeared in the fog this ugly ghost is not considered a bad luck If the walls of Lithuanian castles and mansions could speak one could listen to the chilling testimonies of their past more than one night.. They are really nerve-wracking for tourists even though they are one of the most popular Otherworldly love.From the ring of estates surrounding Ukmergė, the Renaissance era stands out in its history Siesikas Castle A frequent visitor here immediately asks where the tower is There is a widespread legend that Duke Daumantas of Utena married young Halška Once she met the prince's beloved Ostik and fell in love with him Halška was walled up alive in the castle tower and Ostika was thrown into prison in chains It is said that on autumn nights in the lake near the castle even today you can see a boat with falling lovers trying to escape from the sword-raised knight Visiting the ghost of the castle.A castle that is not played in is bad. While visiting In Panemune Castle you will definitely hear about a local ghost Or maybe you'll pay attention to the enigmatic six-meter-deep cellar in the southwest tower this room was once used as a dungeon - it was used by serfs who had offended the owners of the castle and were lowered down with ropes Their life was supported by a shell of dry bread and water In order to frighten the unfortunates even more so that they could not fall asleep and break down faster but the wails could not be heard outside because the prison opening was rolled up with a stone lid It is said that the longest sentence lasted three months you can hear the herons chirping loudly around the castle walls at night and the skulls of serfs who have never seen the light of day ring in the dungeons The rest of the story is that one of the owners of the castle loved his pet monkey so much that when it died he ordered a mound to be poured on the grave Haunted chest.Trakai Castle was built on the rocks where the Crooked Man still lives - he meets the drowned and asks them about the world of the living The Karaim of Trakai say that in the deepest part of Lake Galve a sunken wrought-iron chest full of jewels the chest slowly rises to the surface of the lake and sways on the waves until the first rays of the sun and sinks to the bottom of the lake again when the first roosters crow because the chest is under the spell of the priests Cellar of torture.The largest one that has survived to this day in Lithuania In the Pakruajs manor complex the only museum of punishments during the Baudžiava period in Lithuania operates in the ancient cellar of a barn illuminated by the dim light of medieval dungeons you can get a closer look at the instruments and devices of punishment serfs who were once caught for even a minor offense were tortured to death or maimed for life This was taken care of by the cruel owner of the manor the story of the unrepentant pricks is still spreading children are usually fed sweets - so that the dark stories they heard do not prevent them from falling asleep You can find a list of map objects HERE. reproduction and distribution are permitted only with the written consent of UAB "Naujosios medijos grupė" The sport of strongman is still a young sport that’s not even 50 years old Only a handful of strongman athletes are considered a legend and all strongman fans acknowledge Zydrunas Savickas as a legend Here’s a breakdown of the strongman and powerlifting legend Zydrunas Savickas Detailing his journey to becoming one of the most prolific strongman athletes ever and would get an interest in strongman early during his childhood His first exposure to the sport of strongman was watching a televised Lithuanian strongman event when he was fourteen years old Savickas would initially try playing basketball since he was quite tall But Zydrunas was also over three hundred pounds and incredibly strong His destiny would be to become a top competitor in strongman competitions Two years after seeing his first strongman event Savickas would enter his first strongman competition at just sixteen years old He would do well in his first competition and even beat some of Lithuania’s most seasoned strength athletes Once Savickas got a taster for strongman competitions This competition would lead Zydrunas Savickas to pick up powerlifting immediately after Savickas would break every Lithuanian powerlifting record in just his second powerlifting meet Setting records in every lift that would stand for years Savickas had already been a strength athlete for seven years But the best Big Z still wouldn’t be seen for years to come Zydrunas Savickas would finally reach his goal of winning Lithuania’s Strongest Man in 1998 This win automatically qualifies Savickas for his first World’s Strongest Man Competition The 1998 World’s Strongest Man competition was held in Morocco Savickas would qualify but not rank in the top 10 His most notable accomplishment in his first World’s Strongest Man was winning heat 5 of the anchor drag event he would once again with Lithuania’s Strongest Man and qualify for the 2000 World’s Strongest Man held in South Africa Zydrunas sustained the first serious injury of his career Savickas tore both patellar tendons in the Conan wheel row Many assumed that suffering such an injury meant the end of Savickas’ career He would shock the strength sports world by returning just nine months after suffering the injury Big Z would win the Lithuania powerlifting championships again Following this win up with another Lithuanian World’s Strongest Man win.  This would be the begin the next chapter in the career of Zydrunis Savickas After fully recovering from his gruesome injuries Savickas would finally get over the hump at the World’s Strongest Man This would be the first year that Zydrunas Savickas would not only rank At the 25th World’s Strongest Man event in Malaysia Zavickas would earn a silver medal that year’s event Notably placing first in the lorry pull and two second-place finishes in the car deadlift and tire/anchor flip and drag event Zydrunas Savickas would return to the World’s Strongest Man event and accumulate a score of 46 in six events Earning him another second-place finish at the biggest event within strength sports Savickas would earn another silver medal at the 2004 World’s Strongest Man for the third straight year Savickas would be beaten by Ukrainian strongman Vasyl Virastyuk Many were beginning to believe that Big Z was a good strongman but would never be a champion Zydrunas Savickas would begin transforming from top strongman competitor to a world champion Here are some of the highlights from the prime of his career While Zydrunas Savickas may have been coming up short in World’s Strongest Man he made records at other strength competitions Particularly at the Arnold Strongman Classic Championship Savickas would win his first Arnold Strongman Classic Championship He would follow this win up with five more straight wins at the event These six straight championship wins would make Zydrunas the most-winning athlete in the event’s history Savickas competed at events by the Strongman’s Champion League Zydrunas Savickas would win 36 different events that were held all over the world Big Z would prove all of his doubters wrong that he couldn’t win the World’s Strongest Man Championship He would break through his ceiling to become the World’s Strongest Man for the first time in his career Savickas would finally beat Mariusz Pudianowski to win the biggest event in strength sports Big Z would prove that his win in 2009 was no fluke. Returning to the championship event in 2010 and repeating as World’s Strongest Man champion. Beating American Brian Shaw by the slimmest of margins Just when Big Z was hitting the prime of his career Tearing his bicep and earning his fourth second-place finish at World’s Strongest Man Many would assume that this was the end of the legend’s career Rehabbing and returning to competition in less than a year Zydrunas Savickas would win two more World’s Strongest Man titles in 2012 and again in 2014 Also earning three more silver medals after the injury Zydrunas has had an extremely long career as a strong sport athlete A lot of his longevity is connected with his discipline in training he was known for his explosivity in training Big Z has become more methodical in the gym as he’s gotten older His training routine consists of two types of weight training mixed together where he trains different muscle groups on specific days using more weight than a traditional bodybuilder would keep up his strength Then the strongman-specific training that Zydrunas Savickas does depends on the upcoming competition Savickas will practice the exercises that will be performed at the event He will keep his strength up before the event and hopefully enter the competition with little to no injuries Zydrunas Savickas has numerous records to his name Here’s a list of all his world records and career highlights in various strongman lifts Zydrunas “Big Z” Savickas is one of the most renowned athletes in the history of strongmen Winning 84 international strongman competitions and numerous championships Zydrunas Savickas has earned his place as an all-time great in his four decades-long career.  But even though Zydrunas has left a huge mark on strength sports Big Z is still one of the sport’s top athletes and will look to continue winning championships A martial artist and former coach for two decades from Houston Specializing in the disciplines of kickboxing Link Copied!An NBA prospect coming out of the G-League Ignite Matas Buzelis surely knows how to turn some heads The 6-foot-10 baller rose to national recognition when his participation in the Rising Stars games at Indianapolis at the NBA All-Star Weekend gave a glimpse of the immense potential he possesses This has made many wonder what are the secrets behind his smooth and creative capabilities of handling the ball one of them is not hard to fetch given the fact that his DNA contains a wholesome amount of athleticism both his father as well as his mother have had their fair share of time spent on the hardwood Matas Buzelis’ father Aidas Buzelis is an eminent figure among the Lithuanian Basketball fraternity he too had a sports background while growing up just like his son Aidas’ father Petras Buzelis established himself as a radio and TV sports commentator and editor his mother Elena Buzelienė was an eminent handball player He developed an interest in the sport and subsequently utilized his abilities by participating in the Lithuanian Professional Basketball League His 6 year career spanning from 1993 to 1999 was spent in no less than 3 clubs he chose to wear a Kaunas LSU-Atletas jersey Then he decided to provide his services to Kauno Neco where Buzelis made quite a reputation for himself courtesy of the exceptional physical qualities he possessed The 192 cm tall athlete’s skill set which included excellent jumps and powerful shots made him a popular entity among his teammates his composed attitude was instrumental in getting the team through crucial moments Aidas then capped off his career in 1999 after spending his final two seasons with the Vilniaus Sakalai Aidas was called upon to be a part of the Lithuanian national team as a massage therapist After spending more than 10 years in this profession the 53-year-old continued to be a renowned massage and manual therapist in the suburbs of Chicago A post shared by Aidas Buzelis (@buzelis) Matas’ basketball traits show a little reflection from his mother as well Kristina Jankauskaitė made herself a fierce offensive player when she chose to pick up the basketball in her hands she started off playing for the girls’ and youth national teams she quickly enrolled herself in the Institute of Physical Education for a year where she was also a member of their women’s basketball team A post shared by Kristina Jankauskaite (@kriste5) Standing at 180 cm tall, Kristina soon became popular because she had an excellent throwing arm which compelled her coach to keep her more on the field than on the bench. Be that as it may, Matas Buzelis’s parents are not the only people who made a significant name for themselves in the sporting world. There is a long trail of connections that Buzelis’ ancestors had with sports. One of his grandfathers Arvydas Jankauskas coached children at Biržai Sports School after spending his playing days at the Algirdas Linkevičius. Similarly, before becoming a commentator, Aidas’ father Petras was a 6x Lithuanian champion. In addition to this, he joined the Kaunas “Žalgiris” team at just 19 years of age and also captained USSR to 2 bronze medals. In the meantime, his wife Elena Buzelienė came to be known as among the best Lithuanian handball players of all time. She went on to become a European Champions Cup champion on two occasions. Further, her brute strength and combative nature made her a worthy inclusion in the symbolic team of Lithuanian handball. Also, she won multiple times the Lithuanian champion and also represented the USSR on an international level. Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato had to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video. EssentiallySports is a digital-first sports media house that surfaces the best stories on America's favorite sports celebrities with a fan's perspective to 30+ M average monthly readers. Full Spectrum Services LLP © 2025 | All Rights Reserved