PLACES TO VISIT

Salantai Regional Park Visitor Center

Since 2015, the Visitor Centre in Salantai has been inviting everyone to discover the unique value of Salantai Regional Park – the legacy of the last glacier that once covered northwestern Lithuania. Salantai Regional Park encompasses the old and new valleys of the Minija, Salantas, and Erla rivers. Its landscape features tundra-like boulder fields, the largest juniper forest in Lithuania, the thickest and oldest living chestnut tree, ancient hillforts, and Alka Hill, once home to the longest-burning sacred fire in Samogitia. The park is also dotted with crosses, roadside chapels, and chapel-posts. Salantai Regional Park is well known for its unique stone collections, including the impressive V. Intas collection displayed at the Vaclovas Intas Stone Museum in Mosėdis. The theme of the glacier is revealed in the Visitor Centre’s exhibition, where a stylised relief of the park is formed on the ceiling, uniting all the spaces. This symbolic relief represents the outcrops and flat-bottomed valleys of the Erla, Salantas, and Minija rivers. Everywhere, motifs of boulders and lichens can be seen. Lichens growing on stones remind us of longevity and reflect the changes in nature unfolding over millennia. Visitors are introduced not only to the park’s natural treasures but also to its cultural heritage. Here, you can hear the authentic Samogitian dialect, learn about traditional local architecture and archaeology, and discover people who made the region famous. An interactive game allows visitors to shape the park’s landscape themselves, explore its natural riches, get to know its most important element – the boulders – and even test their strength by trying to “squeeze” a stone. Everyone interested in the nature and culture of Salantai Regional Park is warmly welcome!