Vilnius City Museum will now invite visitors to visit four departments. Most of them can be reached by the capital's rivers, but the departments will be connected not only by waterways - they will also be united by a renewed visual identity, a unified ticket system, and coordinated opening hours.
Four departments will operate under the name of Vilnius City Museum. The Museum of Wooden City Architecture, which is being connected to the museum, is expanding its activities and becoming a Wooden Architecture Center, which will operate not only In Užupi, but also in Šnipiškės. Beatričė Grincevičiūtė's memorial apartment-museum – Beatričės namai – will continue to maintain its purpose, but more attention will be paid to the topic of visual impairment. Markučiai Manor will embody 19th century stories about Vilnius.
Museum activities will continue to take place in the current premises of the Vilnius Museum, but from now on this unit will be called Vokiečių 6. In the long term, the main space of the Vilnius City Museum will move to the Kirdiejų Palace, located in the very heart of the capital, near the Bernardine Garden. Its reconstruction is planned to begin in 2026. Exhibition halls, a visitor center will be located here, various educational and cultural activities will be carried out, and the palace courtyard will become a new, attractive public space for citizens.
"The addition of new departments to the Vilnius City Museum is not only a physical expansion - it is also an invitation to look at the city from more than one point, to understand it as a complex, multi-layered organism. This museum becomes like an urban delta, where "Vilnius converges": different periods, cultural contexts, various disciplines and the stories of personalities who lived in Vilnius merge," says Simona Bieliūnė, Vice Mayor of Vilnius.
The departments of the Vilnius Museum will be united by a common symbol – a stylized letter V, which represents not only the first letter of the city's name, but also the rivers, along which three of the museum's four departments are now located.
"The changes to the Vilnius City Museum open up the opportunity to tell more and more diverse stories of the city and establish closer connections with different communities. From now on, the museum will not be limited to one space - it will become a field of urban storytelling open to everyone, which can accommodate both personal memories and shared historical experiences," comments Rasa Antanavičiūtė, director of the Vilnius City Museum.
From May 21, all departments of the Vilnius City Museum will be open at the same, more convenient hours for visitors – on weekdays from 15.00:19.00 PM to 11.00:19.00 PM, and on weekends from XNUMX:XNUMX AM to XNUMX:XNUMX PM, with the possibility of organizing excursions and educational activities even before opening hours. The promotion will be valid throughout the summer, allowing you to visit all four departments with a single-visit ticket.
More information about the departments:
German 6 (German St. 6)
The branch at Vokiečių 6, located in the former premises of the Vilnius Museum, will continue to invite visitors to explore the city's current affairs. Temporary exhibitions will be held here, examining forgotten, uncomfortable and current topics for the city today. This branch will also host a permanent exposition of Vilnius knowledge, which will be moved to the reconstructed Kirdiejų Palace (Barboros Radvilaitės g. 4 and 6), where the entire museum administration will also be located.
Wooden Architecture Center (Polocko St. 52)
The Wooden Architecture Center, established on the basis of the former Medina City Architecture Museum, will expand its activities. Exhibitions, creative workshops and conferences will continue to be held in Užupis, while two new spaces will be established in Šnipiškės: one of the historic wooden houses will house a center for Šnipiškės residents, and the other will house a restoration workshop where consultations will be provided to owners of wooden houses.
The center will officially begin operations in Šnipiškės on May 23. At 18.00:XNUMX p.m. – An exhibition about the district and its community will be opened on Giedraičių Street.
Beatrice's House (A. Vienuolio St. 12–1)
An authentic three-room apartment with a 8s interior now tells the life story of the visually impaired singer Beatričė Grincevičiūtė. This unit will function not only as a memorial apartment, but also as an experiential space, which will aim to reveal the experiences of visually impaired people to the sighted.
Beatrice's House will also explore the cultural life of Soviet Vilnius, the housing policy of the time, and the everyday life of the A. Vienuolis Street quarter.
Markučiai Manor (Subačius St. 124)
Markučiai Manor will reveal stories of the cultural life of Vilnius in the 19th century, remind us of the development of the Markučiai district and the life of the community of this region. More attention will also be paid to the park surrounding the manor.
In this section, visitors will learn about the history of Varvara Pushkina, her father, Russian Imperial engineer Alexei Melnikov, and their family. The legacy of the Alexander Pushkin Museum established here during the Soviet era will be critically assessed and questions regarding the Russian Imperial heritage in Vilnius will be addressed.
