Palanga

Lithuania

September 16, 2014

My guidebook says it’s “Worth a Trip.” 

So from this coastal city of Palanga I drove east towards the town of Kretinga and then northeast towards the village of Salantai to see Orvydas Garden, “…one of the most unusual sights in all of Lithuania.” *

The Orvydas Garden was the work of stonemason Kazys Orvydas (1905-89) and his oldest son turned Franciscan monk Vilius (1952-92).  The carvings were originally created for the village cemetery in nearby Salantai but were brought here to the Orvydas homestead after then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev turned his wrath on religious objects in the 1960’s.  The Soviets later blocked access to the house to prevent visitors getting to the persecuted Orvydas family.”*