The Samogitian Countryside Exhibition is one of the three permanent countryside and household exhibitions in Lithuania belonging to the Alka Samogitian Museum. The other two are located at Rumšiškės Open Air Museum and Rokiškis Museum.
The Samogitian Countryside Exhibition is an open air museum featuring 16 authentic buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries (a 12-meter-high windmill, a blacksmith’s workshop and three homesteads: one having belonged to a prosperous Samogitian farmer, one to a farmer with average income and one to a poor peasant) and a small symbolic cemetery.
The homestead of the wealthy farmer consists of the main house, a granary, stackyard, barn, shed, pigsty, stackyard for drying flax and a sauna. Usually, the Samogitian homesteads were spacious and had more buildings of various purposes compared to the homesteads in Aukštaitija (a.k.a. the Highlands) and Dzūkija (a.k.a. Dainava) regions. A prosperous Samogitian farmer’s homestead could consist of up to 10 massive buildings with several premises. The main house is open to visitors and has 11 rooms that are called so strangely that only the locals can explain their names and purpose, e.g. a separate room for the old or a larder.
The homestead of the farmer with average income consists of the main house, a granary, a stackyard and a barn. Meanwhile, the poor peasant only has a house and a small barn.
The Samogitian Countryside Exhibition holds a variety of events ranging from folk festivals, barn theatre and May Devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary to Advent educational workshops that teach weaving, toymaking, felting and embroidery.
The Žemaitukas horses are also bred here. The visitors are welcome to take a ride in horse-drawn carriages.
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