ETHNOGRAPHICAL FARMSTEAD

 

The ethnographical exposition of Aukstaiciai mode of life reflects the life of our forefathers at the end of the19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, when a horse was their friend and assistant.

A traditional farmstead in Aukstaitija consists of 5 separate buildings: a house, a barn, a cattle shed, a granary and a bathhouse. The house consists of two ends: a hut is in one end, a sitting room is in the other end; a storeroom and a passage are in the middle.

Visitors can see household utensils of Aukstaiciai in the storeroom with the dirt floor: scales, called “bezmenas”, a battledore, a board for washing clothes, a mangle yoke.

The hut was the important place: food was prepared, members of the family worked and had a rest there and they weaved horse-locks and the bench stood there too.

Every housewife was proud of a very nice weaved towel which was beside a sacred painting. A large dough - trough was the main accent in the hut. You can see dishes too: earthenware saucepans, pots, wooden buckets and spoons. The only place, which had wooden floor, was a sitting room. Guests were received there. Visitors can see nice chests decorated with flowers, commodes and wardrobes decorated with carvings, patterned bedspreads.

A storeroom is without a window. A housewife kept food there, grindstones stood there too. You can see a vat, a hand grindstone, a basket for smoked fat and sausage, a wooden mortar. All the exhibits were collected during expeditions to the villages of Anyksciai.