Rumšiškės is a
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
n town (population 1,700), situated east of
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...
on the northern bank of
Kaunas Reservoir. Southern part of the town (including the birthplace of Lithuanian poet
Jonas Aistis) is now under the waters of the artificial lake. The 18th century St. Michael Archangel church of Rumšiškės (rebuilt in the 19th century) was saved and moved to its present place in 1958, when the
reservoir
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation.
Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...
was created.
History
Rumšiškės was first mentioned in year 1382 as ''Rumsinker'' in the ''
Lithuanian route report'' (''Wegeberichte''), prepared by the
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...
. At that time Rumšiškės were a center of land or an estate of a local ruler. In 1385 Teutonic knights by returning from siege of Vilnius were attacked by Lithuanians who prevented their crossing of the river
Nemunas. In 1387 in the letter of
Jogaila to
Skirgaila
Skirgaila ( la, Schirgalo; be, Скіргайла; pl, Skirgiełło, also known as Ivan/Iwan; ca. 1353 or 1354 – 11 January 1397 in Kiev (Kyiv); baptized 1383/1384 as ''Casimir'') was a regent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his broth ...
, Rumšiškės was mentioned as village. At first the plan of Rumšiškės was linear, but in the first half of 15th century the plan of Rumšiškės was becoming a radial one.
In 1940–1941, a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
was created in a nearby village of
Pravieniškės. After 1941 the camp was used by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
. All members of the Jewish community were murdered by the Nazis and local collaborants
near Rumšiškės during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
One of the most well-known Jews of this locale is Rabbi Haim, known best for the Jewish adaptation of
allegory of the long spoons
The allegory of the long spoons is a parable that shows the difference between heaven and hell by means of people forced to eat with long spoons. It is attributed to Rabbi Haim of Romshishok, as well as other sources.
The allegory can be summar ...
.
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...
Lagoon now lies in the place of the old Rumšiškės. The old town was flooded as a result of the construction of Kaunas hydroelectric power station, while the main objects – St. Michael the Archangel Church, its bell tower and the chapel that stands in the current Rumšiškės town cemetery – were moved.
Open-air ethnographic museum
Today, Rumšiškės is best known for its excellent open-air
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
museum (established in 1966 and opened in 1974), one of the largest in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
The open-air museum is a unique and one of the largest open-air ethnographic museums in Europe. It has the biggest quantity of exhibits (90820 exhibits).
The open-air museum in Rumšiškės displays the heritage of Lithuanian rural life in a vast collection of authentic resurrected buildings where the Lithuanian people lived and worked. The total area of 175 ha (432
acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...
) contains 140 buildings from the 18th–19th century with the restored original interiors and surroundings. This museum was established to help to preserve and research the former ways of living.
The buildings of this museum are exposed as farmsteads and all of them together represent the main ethnographic regions of Lithuania:
Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija (; literally in Lithuanian: ''Upper lands'') is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from lands being in upper basin of Nemunas River or being relative to Lowlands up to Šiauliai.
Geography
Auk ...
,
Samogitia
Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
,
Dzūkija
Dzūkija or Dainava is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Dzūkija is a cultural region defined by traditional lifestyles and dialects of the local Lithuanian population (mostly rural farmers) and has never been defined as a poli ...
and
Suvalkija. Each has the homes, barns, granaries, stables, mills characteristic to the area. They all have restored unique interiors with ancient Lithuanian used household furniture, utensils, and home decorations. Some buildings are equipped with workshops, presenting the ancient Lithuanian handicraft works, showing how the tools were made and antique farming implements were used.
The museum has a sector dedicated for exile and resistance. In this section there is a yurt covered with turf, an animal deportation wagon, a partisan bunker camouflaged at the stream slope and well-equipped.
The territory of the museum is a very popular place where ethnographic festivals are celebrated and folk song and dance concerts are held. This museum is very easy to reach since it is located 18 km (11 mi) to the east of Kaunas near the Kaunas-Vilnius highway. Rumšiškės belongs to the
Kaunas Reservoir Regional Park
Kauno Marios Regional Park was established in 1992 with the purpose to protect the unique lower landscape of Kaunas Reservoir, its natural ecosystem, and cultural heritage. It covers the total of 101.73 km² (water - 51.45 km², forests ...
.
The museum was featured in the reality show ''
The Amazing Race 12
''The Amazing Race 12'' is the twelfth season of American reality television show ''The Amazing Race''. It featured eleven teams of two competing in a race around the world.
The season premiered on CBS on November 4, 2007, and the finale aired o ...
'' in 2007.
Užgavėnės
Užgavėnės
Užgavėnės is a Lithuanian festival that takes place during the seventh week before Easter (Ash Wednesday). Its name means ''"the time before Lent"''. The celebration corresponds to Roman Catholic holiday traditions in other parts of the wo ...
(literal meaning - ''the time before
Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...
'') - a festival to drive the winter out. It is the oldest festival of its kind known in all of Europe. Lithuanians celebrate the annual festival in Open-Air Museum in Rumšiškės. Festival takes place during the seventh week before Easter. Užgavėnės begins on the night before Ash Wednesday, when an effigy of winter, named More, is burnt. It celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Another popular festival tradition is a staged theatrical fight between Lašininis (porky) personifying winter and Kanapinis (hempen man) personifying spring. Kanapinis always wins. Devils, witches, goats, the grim reaper, gypsies, and other joyful and frightening characters appear in costume during the celebrations. The traditional dish of the holiday is pancakes with a variety of toppings. Round pancakes symbolize the returning sun.
Notable people
*Rabbi Haim of Romshishok, to which is attributed the Jewish version of the
allegory of the long spoons
The allegory of the long spoons is a parable that shows the difference between heaven and hell by means of people forced to eat with long spoons. It is attributed to Rabbi Haim of Romshishok, as well as other sources.
The allegory can be summar ...
.
*The poet
Antanas Baranauskas
Antanas Baranauskas ( la, Antonius Baranovski, pl, Antoni Baranowski; 17 January 1835 – 26 November 1902) was a Lithuanian poet, mathematician and Catholic bishop of Sejny. Baranauskas is best known as the author of the Lithuanian poem '' ...
attended school in Rumšiškės.
*The artist
Kęstutis Krasauskas has worked at the open air museum.
References
External links
Web site of the museumRumšiškės on jewishgen.orgThe official website for tourism in Lithuania
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumsiskes
Museums in Kaunas County
Towns in Lithuania
Towns in Kaunas County
Ethnography of Lithuania
Ethnographic museums in Europe
Open-air museums in Lithuania
Kovensky Uyezd
Holocaust locations in Lithuania