Šilutė District Municipality: Delta, bird migration and cultural heritage

Delta, cape and bird migration

Cape Ventė is the westernmost point of Šilutė District Municipality and a peninsula on the eastern shore of the Curonian Lagoon. The red-brick lighthouse there was built in 1852. It is open to visitors to climb free of charge and serves as a lookout point; check accessibility before your trip. The station at the cape has Europe’s largest traps for catching migratory birds. The Cape Ventė Museum tells the story of bird ringing and the study of bird migration. Here, architectural history and the study of bird migration offer two distinct themes for a visit.

The nature trails also offer different ways to experience the landscape. The 2,400-metre Aukštumala Nature Trail is in the Aukštumalė telmological reserve and offers insights into a raised bog, its characteristic plants and animals, and the surrounding landscape. The Tulkiaragė Nature Trail is 1.8 kilometres long in one direction and runs along a dike by Lake Krokų-Lanka. The direction is explicitly part of the stated distance. The Kintai Forestry District’s nature trail, meanwhile, has observation towers overlooking the Curonian Lagoon.

There are also specific places for activities on the water: a small-craft harbour was established in Kintai in 2014 to meet the needs of fishermen and tourists. Water- and land-based tourism activities are offered in the village of Minija, including boating and water skiing. The Uostadvaris Lighthouse is a different structure from the one at Cape Ventė: it is 18 metres high, a technical monument and an observation tower with views of the surroundings of Rusnė and Minija. It is no longer used for navigation.

Manor houses, museums and local history

In Šilutė, the Hugo Šojus Manor was established as a state manor in 1721. The elegant building combines late Classicism and Historicism with decoration typical of the Klaipėda Region. Since 2015, it has housed the Hugo Šojus Museum. At the Švėkšna exhibition of the Švėkšna Museum, the exhibits are spread across four galleries: ethnography, archaeology, manor history and local history. The Vilkėno Manor ensemble was built between 1880 and 1897. It includes a two-storey Neo-Renaissance manor house with a tower and a landscaped park combining different styles.

Buildings that once served other purposes also tell the story of the region. The Kintai Vydūnas Cultural Centre and Memorial Museum is in the former Kintai school, built in 1705. Vilhelmas Storosta-Vydūnas worked there from 1888 to 1892. At the ethnographic museum in a fishing settlement, you can see fishing and household items; the museum also presents the way of life and activities of a typical fishing farmer from the Klaipėda Region. The water-lifting station in Uostadvaris, built in 1907, houses the Šilutė Polder Museum. Access is limited.

Choose the right base

When looking for a holiday apartment, it can help to choose locations based on the experiences that interest you most. Kintai is worth considering if the small-craft harbour or the Vydūnas memorial site is important to your plans. For a peat bog experience, the Aukštumala Nature Trail is a specific point of interest; for bird migration and ringing, Cape Ventė and its museum are relevant. This way, you can choose where to stay according to your interests without reducing the different excursion destinations to a single focus.

Discover more places: Minė, Kintai, Degučiai and Usėnai.

Discover more destinations: Neringa Municipality, Kretinga District Municipality, Klaipėda District Municipality.

Return to the main travel overview: Klaipėda County.