Palanga Amber Museum

The Palanga Amber Museum fills the elegant Tyszkiewicz manor at the heart of a beautiful botanical park by the sea, telling the story of Baltic amber. Its collection runs from raw lumps and rare inclusions of insects and plants frozen in ancient resin to worked beads and jewellery, in the region that has traded amber for millennia.

History

Amber has been traded from this coast since prehistoric times, and Lithuanian legend says it comes from the undersea amber palace of Jūratė, in the tale of Jūratė and Kastytis, shattered by the thunder god Perkūnas. Amber workshops appeared in Palanga in the 17th century, and before the First World War about 2,000 kilograms of raw amber were worked here every year. The palace was built in 1897 for Feliks Tyszkiewicz, of an old noble family long present in Palanga, to a design by the German architect Franz Heinrich Schwechten; neglected after the two world wars, it was restored in 1957 to plans by Alfredas Brusokas and opened as an amber museum in 1963 with about 480 pieces. It welcomed its millionth visitor on 13 August 1970, and the collection now numbers some 28,000 pieces, about 15,000 of them with insects, spiders or plants trapped inside (Wikipedia, Palanga Amber Museum).

The main sights

• Amber inclusions - insects and plants trapped in resin tens of millions of years ago.
• The Sun Stone - one of the largest amber pieces, a museum highlight.
• Worked amber - jewellery and objects across the ages.
• The manor and park - the grand house and its rose garden and botanical park.

When to go

Summer for the park in full bloom and the seaside resort around it; the museum is a good year-round and wet-weather draw. The park is lovely for a walk down to the sea.

Things to know

It is a manor museum plus a park rather than a huge institution, worth an hour or two. In peak summer Palanga around it is crowded and commercial. The park and the walk to the pier are as much of the pleasure as the collection.

Nearby

Palanga beach and its pier are through the park; the Curonian Spit and Klaipeda are a short way south.

Key facts