Open-Air Museum of Lithuania

Contacts
Address: J. Aisčio g. 2, LT-56335, Rumšiškės, Kaišiadorių rajonas (Administration).
L. Lekavičiaus g. 2, Rumšiškės, Kaišiadorių rajonas (Reception).
Tel.: (+370 ~ 346) 47 233 (Director), (+370 ~ 346) 47 392 (Public Relations Department), (8 ~ 346) 47 237 (Booking Office).
Fax (+370 ~ 346) 47 120.
E-mail: direktorius@llbm.lt
http://www.llbm.lt/
Director – Violeta Reipaitė.

Information for visitor

Opening hours:
May 1 – September 30:
Tuesday – Sunday: 10 AM – 6 PM
Mondays from 10 AM – 8 PM, the museum is open to visitors; however, only the park will be open – and expositions cannot be viewed.
Other days of the week the museum’s park will also be open from 6 PM – 8 PM.
October 1 – October 18:
Tuesday – Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM.
October 19 – April 30:
Interior exhibitions may be visited only with a museum guide.
Excursions made ahead of time by phone: (+370 346) 47392, (+370 682) 20669.

Admission

Entrance fee:
Ticket (includes exposition), Adults – 8 Lt
Students, Lithuanian Military Personnel, and Pensioners (proper identification required) – 4 Lt
Those receiving social support from the Republic of Lithuania (verified documents must be provided or one that is verified by the list of the Institute of Custody and Wardship – 2 Lt.

Entrance Fees when entering Museum Territory:
Entrance ticket: Adults – 10 Lt; Children – 5 Lt
Cars – 30 Lt + the price of entrance ticket;
Minibus (no less than 9 passengers) – 50 Lt + the price of entrance ticket;
Bus – 150 Lt + the price of entrance ticket.
The Museum holds the privilege not to permit visitors to travel onto museum property during holidays and special events.

Visiting the Park of the Museum:
Mondays and other days from 6 PM – 8PM, the museum functions only as a park (expositions are closed to the public at such time).
Ticket (entrance fee) – 3 Lt + ticket for mean of transportation.

Reduced Rates:
Free of Charge: Children under the age of 6/7, orphans, museum professionals, the physically disabled (Group I and II according to Lithuanian/EU statues) who may be accompanied by one person.
Bus drivers and teachers accompanying children or school groups (one teacher for 20 children) may also enter free of charge.

Guides:
Excursion of the premises (Duration: 120 minutes): Price (for groups up to 20 people) – 100 Lt;
Excursion of the premises (Duration: 120 minutes): Price for children, students, pensioners (groups up to 20 people) – 50 Lt;
Excursion of the premises (Duration: 120 minutes): Price for citizens who are neither citizens of the European Union nor of states that have signed an agreement for European Economic Space (Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein); Price (groups up to 20 people) – 150 Lt.

Note:
For tours that exceed 120 minutes and additional fee will also be charged.

Additional services
Services provided (provided reservations are made forehand)
Excursions;
Thematic excursions and activities;
Educational programs;
Tasting of country dishes;
Filming and photographing for non-commercial purposes (reservations need not be made ahead of time);
Filming, photographing of expositions for commercial purposes;
Searches of archival and bibliographic materials;
Conservation and restoration of objects;
Organizing seminars and conferences;
Organizing presentations of firms and their products;
Organizing closed commercial events as well as those of another nature;
Renting the grounds (courtyard) for closed, commercial events.

Collection
The museum’s collection consists of 80 000 exponents. There are buildings, furniture, household articles, iconography materials, fences, wells, beehives, orchards, flower gardens and other artifacts, which illustrate the way of life, work and traditions of the peasants and townspeople of these regions.

Exposition
The Lithuanian country life museum is an exposition in the open air. The core of the museum - dwelling houses and economic buildings transferred from different regions of Lithuania – Aukštaitija (Upper Lithuania, Suvalkija, Žemaitija (Lower Lithuania or Samogitia), Lithuania Minor. The buildings are grouped in complexes: farmsteads, small villages, and towns. They represent the most characteristic stylistic features, planning, constructions, and decorative elements of buildings of different epochs and social strata. 
Natural environment of the buildings is restored – fences, green plantation, sacral monuments. In 51 of these buildings an interior exposition with the equipment characteristic to some particular period is arranged – furniture, cloths, kitchen articles, working tools. In some buildings the process of some kind of work is demonstrated: making pots of clay, processing of the amber, wood, metal, weaving etc. A separate sector is devoted to the memory of the exile and torture of the Lithuanian people – wigwam, exile carriage, and monuments. 

Cultural, educational activity
Educational programs are prepared.
Folk concerts are organized.
Traditional folk events are organized.
Family holidays are organized.

Departments
Department of Architecture.
Department of Mode of Life, Occupations and Crafts.
Department of Information.
Funds’ Department.
Restoration and Conservation Department.
Department of Forest Management and Landscape.
Library-archives.

History of the Museum
The museum was founded in 1966.
The exposition was open for visitors in 1974.
Entire buildings and artifacts from towns, villages and farmsteads from all over Lithuania have been brought to this place and reassembled. They date from the second half of the 18th to the first half of the 20th century and are well worth seeing.
Museum’s establisher – Lithuanian Republic’s Ministry of Culture.

Rumšiškės
Rumšiškės is town in central Lithuania, 13 km east of Kaunas, on the right bank of the Nemunas river.
The fortress hills and the barrow graves in the surrounding country-side indicate that the locality has been inhabited since ancient times. Numerous bronze artefacts were discovered in the cremated and non cremated barrow graves (13th–16th centuries) during excavations conducted in 1953–1963.
The earliest mention of Rumšiškės in historic sources goes back to the 14th century. The township, one of four in the province of Kaunas, is mentioned in 1508, while in 1557 there are references to the town and to the royal township, also called eldership. In 1792 the town received the rights of municipal self-government and a town crest, three white lilies on a red background.
The townspeople made their living mainly from the transit trade along the Nemunas and the land route from Kaunas to Vilnius, with another branch leading to Gardinas.
A school for township clerks was founded in the middle of the 19th century.
During Lithuania’s independence (1918–1940) it served as the township seat.
In 1966 was founded the Open-Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumšiškės.