The Last Free-Admission Sunday of Summer at the National Museum of Lithuania: From the History of the Struggle for Freedom to the Book Dragon

The Last Free-Admission Sunday of Summer at the National Museum of Lithuania: From the History of the Struggle for Freedom to the Book Dragon 2026 08 28 On 30 August, the last Sunday of summer, all branches of the National Museum of Lithuania will welcome visitors free of charge. For the first time on a free-admission Sunday, visitors will be able to explore the exposition “Frequency of Freedom”, which opened at Gediminas Castle Tower just a week earlier. Meanwhile, at the House of Histories, it will be the final opportunity to see a photographic dialogue between Stanisław Filibert Fleury and Sigitas Parulskis. Taking Responsibility for Our Freedom The exposition “Frequency of Freedom” opened at Gediminas Castle Tower on 23 August. Rather than presenting the history of Lithuania’s struggles for freedom chronologically, the exposition tells it through a choice that recurs time and again: to resist, to take responsibility and to act together. “The circumstances and forms of resistance differed, yet time and again there were people who took responsibility and asked themselves: what can I do right now? They may have been afraid, uncertain or unaware of how things would end, but they chose not to give up. Freedom does not simply happen – it is created through people’s decisions and actions. Today, we live in a free country, but the question of responsibility has not disappeared. The exposition invites us to consider how we ourselves would act in difficult circumstances and what we can do for our country today,” said Rūta Kačkutė, Director General of the National Museum of Lithuania, at the opening of the exposition. The uprisings, the Wars of Independence, the partisan war, the dissident movement, the National Revival and the events of January 1991 are brought together in the exposition as a recurring frequency. The tower itself forms part of this history. For many years, the remains of participants in the 1863–1864 uprising who had been sentenced to death lay buried at its foot. On 1 January 1919, the flag of the Lithuanian state was raised on the tower for the first time. During the Soviet occupation, political prisoners returning from labour camps would hurry here to have their photographs taken, while in January 1991 volunteers defending the Lithuanian tricolour watched from the tower as tanks moved towards the Parliament building. A Photographic Conversation between Fleury and Parulskis, and a Journey into Lithuanian Roots At the House of Histories, Sunday will be the final day of the exhibition A Photographic Conversation between Stanisław Fleury and Sigitas Parulskis “Gazing at Each Other”. In the early 20th century, Stanisław Filibert Fleury walked through Vilnius with his camera, photographing the city’s streets, hills, bridges and everyday life. More than a century later, writer, poet and photographer Sigitas Parulskis returned to the same locations, set up a large-format camera on a tripod and captured the same views. The exhibition reveals both the transformation and the continuity of Vilnius, while Parulskis’s photographs are accompanied by his own texts. This weekend is the last chance to see the exhibition. During the free-admission weekend, visitors to the House of Histories can also explore its the permanent Ethnographic Collection Storage. It is the only place in Lithuania where such a rich and diverse collection can be seen, preserving traces of the identity of Lithuanians who lived 200 years ago and earlier through architecture, domestic interiors, everyday life, crafts and trades. Traditional straw gardens created by master craftspeople also hold a special place in the display. Optical Illusions, a Dragon and the Most Beautiful Books from Three Countries At the Kazys Varnelis House-Museum, free 45-minute guided tours will take place at 11:00, 12:00 and 14:00 on Sunday, 30 August. Visitors will be invited into the world of optical illusion created by the artist and collector, complete with imaginative visual games, theatrical mises-en-scène and unexpected transformations of space. The museum is also hosting the family-friendly exhibition “Book Dragon: A Fantastic Story About the Beauty of Books”. In a playful and engaging way, it tells the story of how a book comes into being: what materials it is made from, how it is printed, illustrated and bound, and what an ex libris is – a mark used by book lovers to identify books in their personal libraries. Bibliophile Kazys Varnelis amassed more than 9,500 books during his lifetime, and the exhibition continues to explore the former owner of the house and his extraordinary relationship with books. The museum’s galleries also feature some of the most beautiful books from three countries: 46 award-winning titles from the Czech Most Beautiful Books competition, 21 Lithuanian books from the 34th Book Art Competition, and 25 Latvian publications selected in the 33rd Golden Apple competition. The Exhibition “The Most Beautiful Latvian Books of 2025” is being presented at the Kazys Varnelis House-Museum for the first time. The exhibitions have been organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Vilnius and Knygų šalis. Works by Ukrainian Children At the Bastion of the Vilnius Defence Wall, visitors can see the exhibition “That Flower Looks Like a Drone” – ten paintings that grew out of workshops organised in Kyiv by Danish artist Eske Touborg for Ukrainian children rescued from Russian-occupied territories. The artist added blurred portraits of the children themselves and images of war to the brightly coloured backgrounds they painted on a 20-metre-long canvas. In doing so, the works address the systematic erasure of abducted children’s identities through new names, imposed languages and enforced loyalties. Alongside the paintings is a sculpture created by the artist that represents children’s fear. The title of the exhibition comes from a child’s comment about a flower they had painted. All proceeds from the sale of the works will be donated by the artist to “Save Ukraine”. The exhibition runs until 6 September. The underground spaces of the Bastion also feature the newly updated exposition “From Flint to Gunpowder”. It presents authentic weapons from the collections of the National Museum of Lithuania that have never previously been on display, tracing 10,000 years of the evolution of weaponry: flint gives way to steel and gunpowder, the bow to the arquebus, the blow to the gunshot, and the animal in the sights to a human being. Sustainability and an Opportunity to Understand Lithuania At the Old Arsenal, the archaeology exhibition “Reusable” is open until 8 November. Archaeological finds reveal how people extended the life of objects – from carefully repaired jewellery and tools to items that were given an entirely new function. In some cases, objects were altered or repaired even when they were no longer suitable for everyday use, for example when they were being prepared for burial rituals. In the very centre of Vilnius, the Castellan’s House is home to the exhibition “Understanding Lithuania”, which presents the country’s history, culture and identity through six thematic strands: creativity, beliefs, struggles, turning points in history, global connections and faces. The 16th-century building itself served as the seat of the castellans of Vilnius until the 18th century, and history has preserved the names of 39 of them. The “Lithuanian Indiana Jones” – Jonas Basanavičius At the House of Signatories, the gallery is hosting the exhibition “The Unknown Jonas Basanavičius: Lithuania’s Indiana Jones” until 27 September, exploring a little-known aspect of the doctor’s archaeological and anthropological work. The exhibition presents archaeological sites in Lithuania that Basanavičius investigated, as well as the theories he developed on the origins of Lithuanians. His personality is revealed through personal belongings, while his scholarly work is represented by archaeological finds and a collection of skulls gathered from ancient burial grounds. The exhibition was created by Master’s students from the Department of Archaeology at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University. Looking at History through the Prism of Contemporary Art This year, the Jonas Basanavičius Birthplace in Ožkabaliai has dedicated a large part of its programme to the 175th anniversary of Basanavičius’s birth. Until 27 September, the museum is presenting the audiovisual installation “Es humanus”. The three-dimensional installation combines textiles, kinetic projections, music and contemporary dance, creating a bridge between tradition, history and contemporary art. Through the recurring motif of the human being, the artists offer a different interpretation of Jonas Basanavičius: from the first heartbeat to a thinking individual and, ultimately, a leader capable of uniting an entire nation – the doctor and Patriarch of Lithuania, whose work encompassed both the fostering of national identity and the preservation of life. The exhibition “A Fighter on the Move” tells the story of Jonas Basanavičius’s travels across Europe and beyond the Atlantic – journeys undertaken not for leisure, but for work. The exhibition includes personal belongings that have never previously been displayed: a travelling hygiene case with brushes, cufflinks, a stiff white collar, a pillowcase decorated with national flags, a document folder marked “LIETUV. PASAKOS”, Franzensbad glasses, a packet of Bulgarian soil bearing an autograph, and hand-drawn playing cards. Other exhibits include a printer’s toolbox, reliefs of T. Kościuszko and A. Mickiewicz, objects associated with the 1863 uprising, and a pocket pistol. Mykolas Sauka’s sculpture “Wayside Shrine”, 2026 at the Jonas Basanavičius Birthplace also reflects on the personality of Lithuania’s patriarch. The three-metre-high wooden work offers a contemporary interpretation of the Lithuanian wayside-shrine tradition and features the figure of a child holding a mask. The sculpture does not depict any specific saint, mythological figure or fairy-tale character. “The connection I had in mind when creating the sculpture was its relationship with tradition, expressed through the form of the wayside shrine. The sculpture placed within this traditional form of vernacular architecture does not represent any particular saint or character from mythology or fairy tales. Folklore, fairy tales and myths emerge from oral tradition and collective creativity, and this is what I invite visitors to contribute to. Like many sculptures, the figure placed inside the wayside shrine is simply an abstract form – a nameless character waiting for someone to create a story for it. If a story is created, it will have succeeded, and it will live,” said sculptor Mykolas Sauka. In Palanga: The Sea in Tapestries and Stories of the Partisans At the Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga, the sensory exhibition “In the Shoes of Lithuanian Partisans…”, designed for blind and sighted visitors alike, is open until 2 October. Through smell, sound, sight and touch, visitors can experience stories of Lithuania’s partisan resistance. At the heart of the exhibition are the freedom fighters’ shoes, lasts, unfinished footwear and other objects associated with shoemaking, while twelve historically reconstructed artefacts can be touched, tried on or even worn. The exhibition was created by historian, artist and footwear designer Rūta Rimšelienė. It forms part of the Creation Lab, the residency programme held at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum during the summer. Also on display until 2 October is the exhibition “Marija Švažienė: Tapestries and Paintings”. From her earliest works, the artist, born in 1930, challenged established tapestry traditions, giving the medium a dynamic and spatial form of expression. The exhibition features motifs of the sea and Palanga as well as a creative dialogue with her husband, painter Jonas Švažas (1925–1976). It also reveals a story spanning five decades and involving Swiss composer of Italian origin Gaetano Giuffrè. His rhapsody, inspired by Švažienė’s Spatial Tapestry, remained unknown to the artist for many years. Here, for the first time, the music can be heard alongside the restored tapestry that inspired it. A Bridge Leading Nowhere and a Vanished Town At 13:00, the Vincas Kudirka Museum will host a summer Sunday guided tour of Kudirkos Naumiestis. Museum guides will introduce visitors to one of the largest churches in the Užnemunė region – the late-Baroque Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross – as well as interwar modernist architecture of a kind one might not expect to find in a small town, and a bridge over the Širvinta River that today leads nowhere. The tour is ticketed, and advance booking is recommended. The Vincas Kudirka Museum in Kudirkos Naumiestis is also home to the exhibition “I Wanted to Go Home, to Schirwindt. In Search of a Destroyed Town”, dedicated to the town of Schirwindt, which once stood on the other side of the river before disappearing without a trace. It was once Germany’s easternmost town and was often described as the twin town of Kudirkos Naumiestis. The exhibition draws on a collection assembled over many years by teacher and local historian Antanas Spranaitis and his wife Irena. During the Soviet period, they travelled through the former East Prussian territories that had become Kaliningrad Oblast, collecting surviving German tableware, household objects and tools. These objects can now be seen in the Vincas Kudirka Museum. Free-admission Sunday at the National Museum of Lithuania takes place on the last Sunday of every month. On 30 August, admission to all branches of the Museum is free.