Summer season with Neringa Forest Architecture tours!
NAC continues  guided tours by foresters, landscape planners, historians, biologists, artists, and architects. Saturdays, 12 pm local professionals from various fields lead the tours in Curonian Spit, sharing their experience and knowledge about its history, stories, landscape, features, and infrastructure.

Tours are free of charge and open to everyone. Registration is mandatory via email 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Upcoming tours:

Saturday, 24 June 12:00 pm

Forest as a Space

Anton Shramkov will explore the spatiality of the forest. The forest is understood here as a space with its laws and spatial compositions with immediate influence on humans.

Meeting point: Preila bus stop

Anton Shramkov was born in Moscow and graduated in architecture from the Moscow Institute of Architecture. He worked as a lecturer in Russia and Sweden. He has been living in Preila since 2007.

Saturday, 17 June, 12pm

Tour on seeds

Forester Gražina Banienė talks about the people working in forestry, why the mountain pine growth is controlled and shows how the restored forest looks like, how it is protected and grown. Flipping through the old Curonian Spit maps one can notice that a couple hundred years ago there weren't any forests on the Curonian Spit. It appeared only due to the hard work and care of people. Does the history and life of the forest end with it's planting, and does nature take over caring for it? Certainly not, but perhaps the willingness to get along with nature leads to the fact that the work of the foresters is not always noticed, and sometimes falls into the eye.

Meeting point: Nida Art Colony, E. A. Jonušo str. 3,  Nida

Gražina Banienė was born in Seiniai, Poland and continued her studies at Lithuanian University of agriculture. Applying her knowledge of silviculture in practice, she works as a forestry specialist at Valstybinė miškų urėdija. Every spring, Gražina organises the National forest planting festival, inviting the public to get to know the forestry profession by planting trees.

Saturday, 10 June, 12 pm

Hike to Giedružė Dune

Forester Gediminas Virginijus Dikšas leads the group to the top of Giedružė dune, which is hardly reached by touristic paths. On the way G.V. Dikšas shares more than 50 years of experience in working with ancient forest and coppice of young trees that group passes. 

Meeting point: Bottom of Angis Hill, next to the entry to Thomas Mann museum, in the parking area (next to Pamario str. 55, Nida)

Gediminas Virgilijus Dikšas is a long-time forester and ranger of Nida Forest division, he has been living and working in Nida since 1970 and is currently in retirement.

Saturday, 3 June, 12 pm

Greenkeepers of Nida dunes

In the Curonian Spit, the dunes were forested to tame the desertification. This is a product of the hard labour and dedication of people. The Nida Greenkeepers' old cemetery is separate from the other burial grounds. During the tour, Gražina Žemaitienė answers the questions. Who were the planters of dunes in Nida and why are their tombs located separately from the rest of Nida's inhabitants? Where did they lived? What does Urbo hill represent today and what was its significance in the past?

Meeting point: In front of the old Nida dunes landscapers' cemetery, at the intersection of the road and G. D. Kuvertas Street (middle entrance to Nida)

Gražina Žemaitienė, born in Šilutė, studied at Kaunas University of Technology, moved to Neringa in 1989. Gražina's areas of work include the development and implementation of landscape projects in the Curonian Spit, planning of recreational facilities both on forest land and in urbanised areas, and preventive maintenance work for visitors to the Curonian Spit.

///

In collaboration with Nida Culture and Tourism information Center “Agila” and Curonian Spit National Park NAC is launching a series of free Neringa Forest Architecture tours. 

As discussions surrounding human intervention and activities in the natural landscape gain increasing significance, NAC is hosting a new research and residency programme called Neringa Forest Architecture. The project positions the Curonian forest as an experimental case study; an opportunity for participants to analyze the broader scope of forest-as-infrastructure including topics such as growth, transformation, policy making, management, technology, art and design in the Baltic-Scandinavian region.

As a part of the programme, NAC is facilitating a series of guided tours. Using the onsite woodshed as a literal and figurative departure point (the shed houses Neringa timber and is itself an object and location made using local wood), this series of walking expeditions is designed to cultivate inquiry and discussion about the unique juncture between ecological, political/managerial, recreational and industrial narratives associated with the Curonian woods, landscape and the built environment. 

Guided by forestry and national park experts, and architects living and working in the Curonian Spit in dialogue with pupils from Nida Gymnasium, Neringa Forest Architecture Tours facilitate conversation as well as exploration and education. The excursions, while an opportunity to observe the unique qualities of the Neringa Forest, are also a chance to engage in critical dialogue with professionals and pupils while traversing shifting geographical landscapes. Discussions will focus on the Curonian forest and its distinct eco-socio-political features including the complex legal and managerial processes behind its picturesque façade: How were the forests of Neringa planted? Why does the Neringa Forest and its pathways look this way? Why do trees need to be cut down? How does the local (human and animal) community participate in the making of Neringa Forest? What state and civic agencies and institutions are responsible in shaping it? What architecture is envisaged but currently not built? What do people in Neringa desire most in terms of infrastructure and why can it not be realised?

The excursions are free of charge but with a limited number of places available. Registration is mandatory by email 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

Neringa Forest Architecture is co-funded by NERINGA Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.