National Museum of Lithuania
National Museum of Lithuania
3.9
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
3.9
247 reviews
Excellent
66
Very good
115
Average
50
Poor
10
Terrible
6
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Coryy20
Port of Spain, Trinidad6,351 contributions
Jan 2020 • Solo
You wish to learn more about Lithuania then here is where you visit. The cost to enter is rather inexpensive. The museum has the history of Lithuania covered so. It's nice to visit if you want to learn more about this country. I recommend visit on a day when its raining or bad weather outdoors and spend half day truly learning.
Written June 17, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ron
Savannah, GA1,756 contributions
Mar 2023 • Couples
We expected much more from National Museum of Lithuania. Battle of Grunwald display was interesting, but there was no cohesion and flow in exhibits. It did not feel like a Nation Museum. Rather small and quite frankly underwhelming.
Written April 7, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kaelvi2014
Washington DC, DC6 contributions
We spent most of our time at the Prehistoric Lithuania Exhibit, which is housed in a separate building from the rest of the National Museum (located nearby). The exhibits, which are labelled in Lithuanian and English, tell the story of Lithuania up through the 12th century through a combination of artifacts, scale models, reproductions of clothing and explanatory panels. The museum provides a fascinating look at Lithuania's pre-Christian period, before the state was strong and when tribes formed the nation. Our kids enjoyed the displays, particularly the models, and I left knowing a little bit more about the place I was visiting.
Written September 12, 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
screenfant
Kleinmachnow, Germany107 contributions
Jul 2024 • Couples
The museum is divided into several locations, we mainly visited the part in Castellan’s House called Understanding, Lithuania. We were very enthusiastic about this exhibition. It seems brand new to us and follows a concept we have never experienced before. It is basically about bringing the soul of Lithuania to the visitor. So it is about history, culture, photography, religion and science, always under the question: why is this area so important for Lithuania?. For this purpose, a wide variety of concepts are used on three floors, all of which seem to make use of the latest museum didactics. With your own mobile phone, further information can be used via QR codes. We would definitely recommend the exhibition. By the way, we also visited the part about archaeology in the immediate vicinity; here too there was a lot of information, didactically very appealing prepared, but next to Understanding Lithuania it pales a bit.
Automatically translated
Written July 25, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ina
Kyiv, Ukraine228 contributions
Oct 2019 • Solo
I think even in our part of the world many people tend to lump all the three Baltic states into one "the Baltics" entity (especially for tourism purposes). I was guilty of it too. But this Lithuanian National Museum visit, after having recently visited its Estonian counterpart, was instrumental to spot several striking differences:
1) After the Danish and following conquests Estonians were mostly relinquished to subordinate citizens in their own country from medieval times till XX century, when Baltic Germans as a ruling class were eventually driven away by Russians. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in medieval time once was a big mighty state, with Lithuanians being a master class having conquered vast Ruthenian lands (all modern Belarus and part of modern Ukraine), later Lithuania became a junior willing partner in the commonwealth with Poland. Thus Lithuania's religion, culture and arts are heavily influenced by a centralized aristocratic catholic Poland, while Estonia's arts have evolved within the Hanseatic league (German-led decentralized merchants' union of self-governing cities), with Reformation as a religous force, merchants and artisans guilds being important societal actors. A striking difference reflected on the arts of the corresponding societies!
2) Lithuanian art (as expected from its relation to the Polish one) is extremely rich in portraits of aristocracy, clergy and statesmen (GDL within the Commonwealth was an aristocratic oligarchy of four noble rich families, it's natural if they were constantly commissioning their portraits thus stimulating a local painters market), Estonian National Museum has next to zero portraits of anyone. Estonian applied art in terms of splendid ceremonial cups of medieval artisans guilds and merchants could sit proudly in any emperor's collection, while the crockery of the medieval Lithuanian aristocracy honestly would have hardly impressed even my grandmother. Lithuanian applied art is unique for and excels in lovely carved wooden crosses (and the saints' sculptures) made to be erected on roads, fields, crossroads, riverbanks (must be the Catholic church influence).
3) Unrequited love. It was almost that Eternal-Shining-of-the-Spotless-Mind feeling as if you had been in love with someone many years ago, now with those sweet memories you visit them only to find out they don't know you, don't remember your face and your name, but moved on, happily in love with their significant other so you could only quietly retreat so as not to disturb the happy couple with your unwanted presence.
I had that unrequited love feeling looking back at what we were taught at school, Ukrainian historians were in love with and praized GDL for being a (probably unfathomable for a medieval Europe) religiously tolerant society were some/many Lithuanians stayed pagans while conquered Ruthenians (back then Belarus and Ukrainian people were almost one entity, barely started to differentiate) were free to exercise their faith (Orthodox Christians), their ethnicity didn't make them second-degree citizens in the society (this paradise had gone for Ruthenians when GDL entered a state union with Poland which was the start of state-sanctioned Catholicism conversion and Polonization politics).
But this is what I learned back into a Ukrainian school, here in the Lithuanian History Museum I discovered that these several centuries of Ruthenian-lands-within-GDL history were entirely erased, invisible and non-existent in Lithuania; few maps, no artefacts, no mentions of Ruthenians' lands, people and their life within GDL. Getting accustomed to Lithuanian National Museum's totally ghosting Belarus and Ukraine, I found probably one and only mention of Ruthenians' existence within GDL in the Grunwald battle exposition (when united forces of Poland, GDL and Tatars defeated the Teutonic Knights - Germans, sanctioned by the Pope to conquer infidels, basically a sanctioned land grab, because the Polish being Catholics hardly were infidels for the Holy See). In line with its ghosting politics, the museum even didn't employ proper historical terms (Rus or Ruthenians) for the warriors from Ruthenian lands within the GDL's army but instead unexpectedly referred to these medieval people from Lviv or Polotsk in year 1410 as to "Russians". Beam me up, Scotty.
But you get that genuine cordial feeling of a happy GDL's marriage to Poland, being together throughout centuries in sickness and in health (several XIX century anti-Russian empire uprisings, after the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned between the three neighbouring empires; many of interesting touching artefacts pertaining to these uprisings).
I think that for many tourists from other parts of the world this traditional history museum with a rather big versatile collection of artefacts (taking into account that many valuable artefacts were taken to and never returned from Russia in early XX century in order to stop inspiring national feelings in locals), among them a few old maps, plenty of portraits of aristocracy, wooden folk toys, nice wooden cross crafting, national dresses, rooms of a traditional farmhouse, my favs - a piece of XIX century transatlantic telegraph cable, pen-and-ink drawings on playing cards, a giant XIX century PhD diploma awarded by Vilnius university, plenty of moving artefacts of the XIX uprising (from portraits in shackles to a wooden violin hand-made by a political prisoner) and its harsh suppression, medieval Vilnius executioner's swords and superstitions (very similar to Estonian ones (((((spoiler!!!!!!, don't read if you are going to rent an audioguide - probably because the executioner's profession was taught only in Germany, one couldn't apply for this position in a medieval GDL unless they were qualified in Germany!!! End of spoiler))))) the museum may seem something distant, but it is not to be missed for everyone interested in Eastern European history.
Practicalities: admission 3 euro (a big stately collection of artefacts to enjoy several hours which I love and specifically was looking to, meanwhile the Estonian museum charges almost three times more for a miniature collection, which is probably great for most cruise tourists doing the city in a day or less, but unfortunately that felt as not stately enough for me, still cannot get over), an English audioguide to rent for 1 euro (the informativeness from 4 to 6-7 out of ten for different rooms and exhibits, it could give more historical and art background info), a manned cloakroom, two-storied building, all the captions are in English next to Lithuanian.
1) After the Danish and following conquests Estonians were mostly relinquished to subordinate citizens in their own country from medieval times till XX century, when Baltic Germans as a ruling class were eventually driven away by Russians. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in medieval time once was a big mighty state, with Lithuanians being a master class having conquered vast Ruthenian lands (all modern Belarus and part of modern Ukraine), later Lithuania became a junior willing partner in the commonwealth with Poland. Thus Lithuania's religion, culture and arts are heavily influenced by a centralized aristocratic catholic Poland, while Estonia's arts have evolved within the Hanseatic league (German-led decentralized merchants' union of self-governing cities), with Reformation as a religous force, merchants and artisans guilds being important societal actors. A striking difference reflected on the arts of the corresponding societies!
2) Lithuanian art (as expected from its relation to the Polish one) is extremely rich in portraits of aristocracy, clergy and statesmen (GDL within the Commonwealth was an aristocratic oligarchy of four noble rich families, it's natural if they were constantly commissioning their portraits thus stimulating a local painters market), Estonian National Museum has next to zero portraits of anyone. Estonian applied art in terms of splendid ceremonial cups of medieval artisans guilds and merchants could sit proudly in any emperor's collection, while the crockery of the medieval Lithuanian aristocracy honestly would have hardly impressed even my grandmother. Lithuanian applied art is unique for and excels in lovely carved wooden crosses (and the saints' sculptures) made to be erected on roads, fields, crossroads, riverbanks (must be the Catholic church influence).
3) Unrequited love. It was almost that Eternal-Shining-of-the-Spotless-Mind feeling as if you had been in love with someone many years ago, now with those sweet memories you visit them only to find out they don't know you, don't remember your face and your name, but moved on, happily in love with their significant other so you could only quietly retreat so as not to disturb the happy couple with your unwanted presence.
I had that unrequited love feeling looking back at what we were taught at school, Ukrainian historians were in love with and praized GDL for being a (probably unfathomable for a medieval Europe) religiously tolerant society were some/many Lithuanians stayed pagans while conquered Ruthenians (back then Belarus and Ukrainian people were almost one entity, barely started to differentiate) were free to exercise their faith (Orthodox Christians), their ethnicity didn't make them second-degree citizens in the society (this paradise had gone for Ruthenians when GDL entered a state union with Poland which was the start of state-sanctioned Catholicism conversion and Polonization politics).
But this is what I learned back into a Ukrainian school, here in the Lithuanian History Museum I discovered that these several centuries of Ruthenian-lands-within-GDL history were entirely erased, invisible and non-existent in Lithuania; few maps, no artefacts, no mentions of Ruthenians' lands, people and their life within GDL. Getting accustomed to Lithuanian National Museum's totally ghosting Belarus and Ukraine, I found probably one and only mention of Ruthenians' existence within GDL in the Grunwald battle exposition (when united forces of Poland, GDL and Tatars defeated the Teutonic Knights - Germans, sanctioned by the Pope to conquer infidels, basically a sanctioned land grab, because the Polish being Catholics hardly were infidels for the Holy See). In line with its ghosting politics, the museum even didn't employ proper historical terms (Rus or Ruthenians) for the warriors from Ruthenian lands within the GDL's army but instead unexpectedly referred to these medieval people from Lviv or Polotsk in year 1410 as to "Russians". Beam me up, Scotty.
But you get that genuine cordial feeling of a happy GDL's marriage to Poland, being together throughout centuries in sickness and in health (several XIX century anti-Russian empire uprisings, after the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned between the three neighbouring empires; many of interesting touching artefacts pertaining to these uprisings).
I think that for many tourists from other parts of the world this traditional history museum with a rather big versatile collection of artefacts (taking into account that many valuable artefacts were taken to and never returned from Russia in early XX century in order to stop inspiring national feelings in locals), among them a few old maps, plenty of portraits of aristocracy, wooden folk toys, nice wooden cross crafting, national dresses, rooms of a traditional farmhouse, my favs - a piece of XIX century transatlantic telegraph cable, pen-and-ink drawings on playing cards, a giant XIX century PhD diploma awarded by Vilnius university, plenty of moving artefacts of the XIX uprising (from portraits in shackles to a wooden violin hand-made by a political prisoner) and its harsh suppression, medieval Vilnius executioner's swords and superstitions (very similar to Estonian ones (((((spoiler!!!!!!, don't read if you are going to rent an audioguide - probably because the executioner's profession was taught only in Germany, one couldn't apply for this position in a medieval GDL unless they were qualified in Germany!!! End of spoiler))))) the museum may seem something distant, but it is not to be missed for everyone interested in Eastern European history.
Practicalities: admission 3 euro (a big stately collection of artefacts to enjoy several hours which I love and specifically was looking to, meanwhile the Estonian museum charges almost three times more for a miniature collection, which is probably great for most cruise tourists doing the city in a day or less, but unfortunately that felt as not stately enough for me, still cannot get over), an English audioguide to rent for 1 euro (the informativeness from 4 to 6-7 out of ten for different rooms and exhibits, it could give more historical and art background info), a manned cloakroom, two-storied building, all the captions are in English next to Lithuanian.
Written December 1, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Manfromdublin12
Dublin, Ireland166 contributions
Aug 2020
Some very well laid out exhibits and things to see here. Well worth a visit on you r trip. Many good artefacts to view.
Written August 9, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Robin E
Helsinki, Finland178 contributions
Jun 2017 • Solo
To understand Lithuania the National Museum is of no help. There is no floor plan to help you to see contents. I asked at the entrance if there is a floor plan and the answer was "no". Nothing else. The rooms do not exhibit context, it is only artefacts and portraits on display with museum technique from a century back. No message is conveyed, no context given, no interaction. You see a lot of things and it is impossible to construct a meaningful narrative. Entrance is only € 2 if we search for something positive.
Written June 8, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Aksh400001
Dubai, United Arab Emirates17 contributions
Aug 2014 • Family
Recently visited National Museum with my family. Like several other museums in Vilnius, National Museum is also closed on Monday so plan your visit accordingly.
Tickets :
Adult - 7 Litas
Children - 3.5 Litas
Tickets must be purchased using local currency only. No foreign currency is accepted.
Though photography is not permitted without prior official permission, it solely depends on the official's discretion and mood ;)
Some interesting videos are also available for having an overview of Lithuanian history.
Tickets :
Adult - 7 Litas
Children - 3.5 Litas
Tickets must be purchased using local currency only. No foreign currency is accepted.
Though photography is not permitted without prior official permission, it solely depends on the official's discretion and mood ;)
Some interesting videos are also available for having an overview of Lithuanian history.
Written August 22, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Luca M
Vilnius, Lithuania85 contributions
Apr 2021
The exhibitions are interesting and worth visiting — an excellent way to delve into Lithuanian history, especially for tourists. I also loved the view tower with the picturesque city view.
Written July 19, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
HonestTel
Leicester, UK263 contributions
Dec 2019 • Couples
Inexpensive to get in and you can spend a full half day looking around. The signs have English translations so you understand what you see.
Written December 10, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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