Europe’s Best Kept Secret? Anykščiai Lithuania
Anykščiai has to be one of the most beautiful places not just in Lithuania but in the whole Europe. Actually, do you know how to pronounce it? Let’s explore this magical town.
Anykščiai is a town in Lithuania, 20 miles west of Utena. The Church of St. Matthias in Anykščiai is the tallest church in Lithuania, with spires measuring 79 metres in height. Anykščiai is in fact a resort location in Lithuania and super popular for local tourism.
Before I forget, this is the video in case you prefer to watch a more complete version:
PART I: WHAT’S SPECIAL ABOUT IT?
Anykščiai had plenty of popular writers, poets and artists. One of them was Antanas Baranauskas. He wrote the poem “The Forest of Anykščiai” in 1858-1859. Apparently the poem is in Lithuania’s Book of Records as the most translated Lithuanian work of all times. The poem is about highlighting colours, sounds, smells and images of silence and peace in the forest.
We stayed at Vilnius SPA in Anykščiai, literally by the forest! If you haven’t followed my stories, please feel free to check them out here. We went to the forest pretty much everyday and there’s one particular place where you’ll find a-300-metres-path gradually rising up to 21 meters above the ground with a watchtower at the end of 34 meters!
I’ve taken a lot of footage so hopefully the video will give you a flavour of this magnificent place.
PART II: LEGENDS
Anykščiai has a massive importance in Lithuanian’s literature. The poem, The Forest of Anykščiai, written by Antanas Baranauskas has become a landmark of Lithuanian literature. Lithuanians learn this at school and they even need to remember word by word. Apparently not an easy task. I read the English version of that poem and it doesn’t look like trivial. If you don’t believe me, see here.
The most popular boulder in Lithuania is located in Anykščiai. Actually it’s the second boulder in Lithuania according to its size (after Barstyčiai Stone). There a lot of legends about it. Apparently, Puntukas was carried not only by ice; but by the Devil itself, wanting to smash the church of Anykščiai. Most likely all the way from Finland.
During the years of German occupation in the 40s, the sculptor Bronius Pundzius engraved Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, the iconic pilots who crossed the Atlantic Ocean on their Lituanica plane from the US. Unfortunately, the plane crashed in Germany and even though it’s still not 100% certain what happened, it’s believed that the plane was shot down by Germans. However, this is still speculation and you should always do your independent research to choose what you want to believe.
PART III: THE DISCOVERY
As mentioned before, we stayed at the SPA VILNIUS, a modern wellness and SPA treatment centre in Anykščiai. This place is surrounded by the iconic forest Anykščių šilelis and Šventoji river. I was playing with the drone by the hotel and managed to capture some epic footage that will never forget. This is not sponsored and I’m not getting paid to say good things about the spa but I want to highlight that if you want to be very close to the forest and be in a relaxing environment, you might want to consider a place like that.
Breakfast is a buffet, they add a lot of Lithuanian food but still remains international. It was actually quite interesting to see how much they care about flowers that they decorated the whole restaurant and meals with it.
Perhaps the biggest discovery when it comes to food it was how they pair their berries. For example, we had lunch in the Anykščių centre in a restaurant called “5 Taskai” and I had some ravioli with a cheese sauce… so guess what? The sauce had blueberries on top. It was weird at the beginning but it was delicious (forgive me Italy!). Then in other restaurants and in the hotel, we saw blueberries paired with any type of food, even in water. So my take is that they have some great blueberries and want to show how important nature is.
There’s a lot more to cover but hopefully the video can complement it.
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