veliuona area history museum

Contacts
Address: Muziejaus g. 2, LT-74442, Veliuona, Jurbarko rajonas.
Tel. (+370 ~ 447) 42 652.
E-mail: angeleoster@gmail.com
Director – Angelė Orlovskytė.

Information for visitor

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 9–17.

Collection
The museum contains ethnography, iconography collections and furniture.

Exposition

Ethnography Exposition of Veliuona Area
A poor peasant-farmland's room reflecting the life of the beginning of the 20th century is arranged in the exposition. Household articles, agricultural implements, tools for building and fishing, means of weaving, spinning, thread processing are exhibited.
In the nearest future the exposition will be replenished with new displays.

Archaeology Exposition
The exposition acquaints with the historical past of Veliuona since the 4th century. Majority of the displays got to the museum from the localities of Senkapis and Pilaiciai (former Bajerburg castle) after archaeological excavations there.
Historical past is also illustrated by V. Gerulaitis' paintings: "Assault of Bajerburg Castle", "Veliuona Castle", and portraits of Lithuanian dukes.

'In the Classroom of Petras Cvirka'
Exposition acquaints with the biography of a writer P. Cvirka, with a school of his lifetime.

Exhibitions
Art, folk art, ethnographic exhibitions are arranged in the museum.

Cultural, educational activity
Organization of meetings-soirees with artists of Veliuona land and other places of Lithuania;
Organization of concerts;
Organization of literary-musical soirees.

History of the Museum
Since the first years of the Independence of Lithuania a teacher Jeronimas Veverskis together with his pupils fulfilled enthusiastically the work of ethnographers in Veliuona. They started collecting weapons and stone axes.
A teacher Leonida Matuseviciene contributed a lot to the fundamentals of museology in Veliuona.
In 1959 it was started to accumulate material about a writer P. Cvirka who learned in Veliuona School in his childhood.
In 1961 an ethnographic museum was established in Veliuona School.
In 1979 on the basis of the above mentioned museum the History Museum of Veliuona Area was founded which became a branch of Maironis Museum of Lithuanian Literature. 
In 1996 the museum became subordinate to the municipality of Jurbarkas Region and at the same time - a branch of Jurbarkas Area History Museum. 
The museum was settled in Zaleskiai estate palace built in the beginning of the 19th century (a monument of the architecture of classicism). A park of introduced trees has survived around the building. Today one can see here rare for Lithuania trees, such as yellow-flowered tulip-tree, larch, red-leaf oak, black and evening thuja and many other rare trees and bushes.
Founder of the museum – Municipality of Jurbarkas Region.

Veliuona
Veliuona, town in western Lithuania, situated on the Right Bank of the Nemunas between Kaunas (56-km east) and Jurbarkas (30-km west).
The fortress of Veliuona, called Junigeda until the beginning of the 14th century, was one of the main fortresses on the Nemunas River for the defense of Lithuania against the Teutonic Order.
After the conflicts with the Teutonic Order (1422) were over, a town grew up in the valley of the Nemunas and on the slope facing it, where Vytautas the Great in 1418-1421 built the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A school, one of the earliest in the Lithuania, was built next to the church at the beginning of the 16th century.
Rights of self-government were granted to Veliuona in 1507; it became the seat of a considerable eldership and an important center of trade. The Nemunas River carried trade between Lithuania and Prussia; timber, animals and grain were exported, and iron goods, fabrics, salt, and herring were imported.
During the period of Russian rule Veliuona was a township from the middle of the 19th century.
Rev. Antanas Juška, pastor of the parish of Veliuona from 1863-1871, wrote down great many folk songs collected in the neighborhood.
On the Right Bank of the Veliuona creek, which flows through the town and into the Nemunas, there are two fortress hills, separated by a deep ditch. One of them is called Castle Hill; the other is called the Hill or Grave of Gediminas.