Dieveniškės Regional Park

Dieveniškės sits in a narrow salient of Lithuanian territory pushing into Belarus, surrounded on three sides by the border, and the isolation preserved something: villages of timber houses with carved window frames, farmsteads laid out in the old street-village pattern, small wooden churches and roadside crosses, and a way of building and farming that changed less here than elsewhere. The regional park was created to protect that as a landscape rather than as museum pieces, so the villages are lived in. Žižmai, Rimašiai and other villages can be walked between. The population is mixed Lithuanian, Polish and Belarusian. It is a quiet corner that very few visitors reach and it repays slow travel more than a quick look.

The main sights

• Timber farmsteads - old houses with carved frames in working villages.
• Street villages - the historic settlement pattern still legible.
• Wooden churches and crosses - the small religious buildings of the area.
• Border country - the salient nearly enclosed by the frontier.

When to go

May to September for walking and for the villages at their best. Autumn is quiet and colourful. The border runs close on three sides, so staying on the Lithuanian side of unmarked tracks matters.

Things to know

There is almost nothing organised for visitors: no centre, few signs, and limited accommodation or food. Villages are private property and photographing houses and people needs courtesy. A car is effectively necessary. The border is close and should be respected.

Nearby

Šalčininkai lies northwest; Vilnius is beyond it.

Key facts