Kelmė District Municipality – Lakes, Culture and Special Discoveries
Accommodation in Kelmė District Municipality
Kelmė District Municipality combines impressive religious buildings and manor-house history with lakes, natural heritage and special educational activities. You can choose different focuses for your trip: a nature trail by the lake, cultural and historical sites such as Kražiai and Kelmė, or activities that let you get involved yourself. This way, you can choose your holiday apartment based on the experiences that matter most to you.
Lakes, Nature and Learning in the Regional Park
The nature trail at Lake Giliaus is 3.3 kilometres long and follows the lake’s constantly changing shoreline. The lake is distinguished by its distinctive colour and wide variety of plant and animal life. If you want to combine nature observation with exercise during your stay, you’ll find a clearly laid-out route here to help plan your outing.
Another activity is offered at the wake park on Lake Bridvaišis in Tytuvėnai, where you can go wakeboarding. At the Tytuvėnai Regional Park Visitor Centre, you can get information about the park’s sights, protected values and available services. The exhibition “From the Flight of the Crane” complements this introduction with a film about cranes, a crane’s nest, a beaver lodge and bird calls. Various objects recovered from the depths of Lakes Giliaus and Bridvaišis are also on display.
The nature route through Kelmė District includes eight unique natural heritage sites. Kubiliai Hill, also called Birutkalnis, is another notable historical place name in the region; its dating ranges from the 1st millennium to the beginning of the 2nd millennium. These natural and historical themes offer a different focus from the museums and churches.
Churches, School and Manor-House History
In Kražiai, visitors can see the late Baroque, twin-towered Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was built between 1757 and 1763 and is considered throughout Lithuania a symbol of the defence of Catholicism and Lithuanian identity. Kražiai is also associated with the Jesuit College School, founded in 1616 as Žemaitija’s leading educational and religious centre. The surviving building of the former school dates from the beginning of the 17th century.
The Kelmė Manor ensemble is a state-protected cultural heritage site and is considered a rare surviving Lithuanian Baroque manor complex. The Kelmė Manor Museum presents Lithuania’s only exhibition on the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Visitors interested in architecture and history will find a different way to explore the region here than through its nature attractions.
The church and monastery ensemble of Tytuvėnai is described as an original art monument in the art-historical context of northeastern Europe because of its artistic appearance and the combination of different architectural styles. At the Palendriai Monastery Church, visitors can go inside and pray together with the monks. These sites make good reference points if religious architecture or spiritual experience is to be the focus of your trip.
Museums and Hands-On Activities
Since 1973, the Užventis Local History Museum has been housed in the restored granary of Užventis Manor and has presented material on the history of the town. Bookable educational programmes include activities where you can make your own soap and mint a coin. This lets you combine a museum visit with a practical activity; when planning, check which programme suits your stay.
The Tytuvėnai Regional Park Visitor Centre also offers an educational activity covering various forest-related topics: the forest ecosystem, forest spirits and sounds, birds, forest use and edible forest products. The Naujoji Gokula community also maintains a distinctive tradition of events, organising various camps, retreats and well-known Vaishnava festivals every year.
For further information, you can also visit the pages on Tytuvėnai, Kukečių seniūnija and Vijurkai. Choose your holiday apartment according to whether you want to focus your trip mainly on nature, cultural history, religious buildings or educational activities.
For the broader travel overview: Šiauliai County.
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