Žemaitija (Samogitia) National Park

• Western Lithuania

We invite you to come along a journey to Samogitian National Park. Almost all the life here circles around the Plateliai lake. It’s the deepest, largest and most awe inspiring lake in Samogitia, together with its islands, peninsulas, bays, surrounded by stunning string of hills and dense forests. It has a unique inhabitant – ‘common whitefish’ – a fish that is going most rapidly extinct in Europe. Another unique treasure that can be found in Plateliai is amber ( it’s remarkable, as amber is typically the jewel of the sea).

The rich cultural heritage of Samogitia is seem from the large quantity of hill forts, sacred hills, and places of worship. Did you know that this region was the last to be ‘baptised’ in the whole Europe? Catholicism arrived in Samogitia in 1413. Which means the last of Europe’s pagans lived here.

Today people are drawn to this ethnographic region by many remnants of cultural heritage. The eye is drawn to chapels on the side of the road or in random fields, wayside shrines, which reveal the local inhabitant lifestyle and traditions. The Samogitia National Park territory is home to a number of unique wooden churches, Plateliai manor, as well as Samogitian Calvary – which offers up a solid glimpse of stunning architectural heritage.

Another unique entity that is located within the National Park, is the Cold War museum, which is located in the former Soviet missile silo that had deployed four medium- range ballistic missiles, armed with 2-megaton power thermonuclear warheads from this site ( between 1963 – 1978).These missiles, together with similar missile launching sites nearby had the capability to destroy all of Europe.