Lietuvos Nacionalinis

Muziejus
The National Museum of Lithuania
• is a state-sponsored historical museum that
encompasses several significant structures
and a wide collection of written materials and
artifacts. It also organizes archeological digs in
Lithuania.

Excavations in the Paduobė-Šaltaliūnė tumulus

in 2006
• The Museum of Antiquities in Vilnius,
founded by Eustachy Tyszkiewicz in 1855,
was the forerunner of today's museum.
• The policy of Russification recklessly
implemented after the uprising of
1863 put a stop to the museum’s
activities
• The major part of valuable exhibits was
taken to the Rumyantsev Museum in
Moscow, and the reorganized museum
was opened to the public as part of the
Vilnius Public Library in 1865.
• In 1996, the Government of Lithuania granted
the museum the status of the National
Museum of Lithuania in view of the fact that it
held the most important collections of
Lithuanian archaeology, history and ethnic
culture. The museum is housed in the
defensive buildings of the Vilnius Castle
Complex.
• Today the museum has more than a million
exhibits. It holds annual sessions of fieldwork
for researchers of ethnic culture and
historians, and organises archaeological
excavations.
• The museum receives around 250 thousand
visitors each year. General and thematic
guided tours are offered, educational classes
are held from 1996, and the educational
programme “Discovery” has been prepared
and is regularly updated.
National Museum of Lithuania has got
different locations
The New Arsenal The main
exhibition venue
of the National
Museum of
Lithuania focuses
on the history of
Lithuania from the
formation of the
state to the 20th
century and
Lithuanian ethnic
culture.
• The Old Arsenal The exhibition of Lithuanian archaeology
“Prehistory of Lithuania” contains more than
4,000 archaeological finds. These are unique
examples of Baltic culture representing the
culture of Lithuania from the appearance of
the first residents in the territory of Lithuania
in the 11th millennium B.C. to the formation
of the Lithuanian state in the 13th century. In
the first exhibition hall, “Lithuania Before
Christ”, the earliest finds from the
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Ages introduce
work tools and weapons of the first
inhabitants of Lithuania.
• Gediminas Castle Tower
The Castle Hill surrounded by
rivers was a convenient
location to build a castle and
establish a bigger
settlement. Archaeological
investigations have revealed
that there had already been
a settlement on the Castle
Hill in the Neolithic
• The Bastion of the Vilnius Defensive
Wall
The wall formed a closed circle,
almost two and a half
kilometres in perimeter, around
the entire city. The height of the
wall in some places reached ten
or twelve metres, and the
thickness varied from two to
three metres. Nine gates were
built in the wall.
• We are waiting for you to come in
October and visit Vilnius and the
National Museum of Lithuania
together!!!!!!