An Excursion to the National
Park of Aukštaitija
Gabija Kumžaitė
Viktorija Klastaitytė, 8d
Places we visited:
 Palūšė
 Ladakalnis
 Ginučiai mound
 Cooking šakočiai
Palūšė
This is a village in
Ignalina’s district. To
the east from the
village is the lake
Lūkšiai. There is the
Saint Joseph’s church in
Palūšė. It was built in
1757m. (it’s the oldest
wooden church in
Lithuania).
Ladakalnis
It’s a 175m height mountain. You can see 7 lakes from
it: Ūkojas, Linkmenas, Almajas, Asėkas, Asalnai,
Lūšiai, Alksnas.
Ginučiai mound
Next to the lake
Linkmenas is the Ginučiai
mound. Supposedly, on the
oblong, 20-30 m height
steep hill, once stood the
Linkmenas castle , which was
added to the general
Lithuanian defense system in
XIII-XV century. In 1433
the castle was burned by the
Livonian Brothers of the
Sword.
President A. Smetona loved
to visit the Ginučiai mound. On
the occasion of his 60th
anniversary he planted an oak.
Next to the oak the border
zone policeman put a
commemorative stone in 1937.
In 1956 the soviet authorities
cut off the oak and rolled the
stone in to the Linkmenas lake.
In 1989 the member of Vilnius
marchers club found the stone
and rolled it onto the mountain.
In 1997 the commemorative
stone was rebuilt and the oak
was planted on the Ladakalnis
slope.
The geographical centre of
Europe
In 1989 the scientists of the National geographical
institute of France found the geographical centre
place of Europe continent. Using the gravitational
centres method they found, that The geographical
centre of Europe is 54 degrees 54 minutes north
latitude and 25 degrees 19 minutes east latitude. The
point’s accurate place is in Lithuania, 26 km to the
north from Vilnius. In 1997 25 km to the north from
Vilnius, between Purnuškės and Bernotai villages the
rock, that represents the geographical centre of
Europe, was unveiled. In 2004 a monument was built in
the geographical centre of Europe. The monument is
a white granite column with a crown of stars at the
top.
Strigailiškis
Strigailiškis is a village in Ignalina’s
district, next to the western Ignalina’s
edge, Aukštaitijos NP; resort area. It is
the centre of Seniūnaitija. There is a
library. The village promotes food
heritage traditions, you can not only
partake traditional Lithuanian šakočiai,
but also you can watch how they are
made.
Šakotis
Šakotis is a tall branched hollow confectionery. It
is a traditional Lithuanian treat, which is often baked
for weddings.
About the baking of šakotis in Europe was already
known in XI century. It was baked by monks and they
kept the recipes in a big secret. There are known
about 60 šakotis recipes.
Cooking Šakotis
Šakotis is a German cuisine product’s baumkuchenas
strain, sometimes called Bankuchenas from this
German pastry title. Šakotis’s form recals a fir and
its needles serve as branches. After a transverse
section, you can count how many times has the dough
been added. They are cooked all sizes. They have a
mild flavor and pleasant aroma. You need a lot of eggs
to the dough of Šakotis (30-50 eggs for 1 kilogram of
flour), margarine or butter, flour, sugar or honey and
sour cream. Without traditional Šakotis there is also
brittle šakotis where much more eggs are needed.
We are cooking Šakotis...
This Šakotis we have
made ourselves.
The excursion was very exciting.
We learned many interesting
things about the region of
Aukštaitija and we were glad,
that we had a chance to see, how
Šakotis is cooked, and to cook it
ourselves.