Travel Lithuania

Lithuanian Sea Museum

The Lithuanian Sea Museum located in Klaipėda, Smiltynė, is one of the most impressive museums in Lithuania. It always astonishes its visitors and attracts to come back and visit it again. The museum undoubtedly justifies its motto “Together we will learn to explore, enjoy and preserve our harmony with the sea”. In 2009 the Lithuanian Sea Museum celebrated its 30th anniversary that is the real proof of the museum to be well attended by crowds of people.

The Lithuanian Sea Museum is reachable by ferry from the Old Ferry terminal or from the New Ferry terminal in Klaipėda. Ferries might carry bicycles, cars and buses as well as separate people on foot. One more way to reach the Museum is taking a passenger boat departing next to the Old Ferry terminal. As you reach the other shore, you may choose to walk the distance to the Museum, hire a horse-drawn coach or take a mini train. It is mentionable that a free parking lot for 8 buses and 70 cars is available next to the Lithuanian Sea Museum.

The museum holds 6 expositions all very different and impressive. The main part of exhibits is gathered in the Nerija Fort, which itself is an exhibit of historic heritage as it is a military building erected in the 19th century. Visitors now see the restored fort that was changed according to the needs of Lithuanian Sea Museum. The Aquarium, Exposition of Marine fauna, seabirds and mammals as well as the Exposition of History and Navigation are held in the Nerija fort.

The Aquarium offers a great variety of exhibits including invertebrates, Lithuanian freshwater fishes, many fish species from the Baltic sea as well as from various tropical seas. Fishes and invertebrates are held and exposed in tanks that range from 1 to 6 m3. The tanks are always under strict supervision to be acceptable for creatures to live in and for visitors to admire. What is more, there is an outdoor pool where seals, sea lions and penguins live. A special penguinarium of 60 m2 including 2 inside pools is equipped for penguins to live in summer when it`s too hot outside and in winter during biggest frosts. All those animals have bred successfully many years already. They are fed according to special diet in order to get all the necessary nutrients and some of them are specially trained for visitors to watch lively shows.

The exposition of Marine fauna is a miscellaneous collection of exhibits including mollusc shells, 50 various fossils, shark tees, algae, trilobite, various original exhibits representing times of the dinosaurs. Visitors can also see professionally made sculptures of the most dangerous sea animals in their original size. The special illumination, sound and light effects strengthen the impression that they are real and still dangerous.

Exposition of History and Navigation is displayed in former gunpowder cellars of the Nerija Fort. Visitors are able to get acquainted with a big variety of ship models, photography duplicates, documentary materials as well as the archeological excavations. Visitors, just surveyed the inside expositions, can look around the biggest exhibits located outside that include original anchors of 19-20th and 3 fishing boats. What is more, visitors can take a walk at a farmland of coastal fisherman decorated originally.

The Lithuanian Sea Museum is worth to visit not only for its spectacular expositions but for educational purposes too as the museum personnel has prepared even 8 different lectures about the mysterious sea world. In addition to this, the museum closely cooperates with the Dolphinarium located just in front of it where therapeutic sessions with the dolphins are available created under the scientific research called ”The Dolphin Influence to Psychosocial Reinstatement of Disabled Children ”. If you ever come to Klaipėda, you will be grateful to yourself for visiting this remarkable museum.

For more information, please visit: www.muziejus.lt/en/inside.php?id=info

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