Established in 1923, this is the home of Šiauliai’s Aušros Museum, which has several branches throughout the city. This particular building houses several permanent exhibitions including a typically yawn-inducing archaeology department complete with models of how local villages looked like thousands of years ago and several glass cases full of spears and broken pots. More interesting is the Peasant Life at the Turn of the 20th Century exhibition, featuring recreations of peasant homes of the time and examples of what the people who lived in them used to wear. The adjoining room contains some startlingly cruel folk wood carvings whilst upstairs is a small memorial to the Sąjūdis (Reform) movement who helped bring about an end to the Soviet occupation of the country. Among the many photographs and other trinkets are a German beer bottle found inside the former Soviet Soldier’s Monument that once stood outside the Cathedral and that was built by German prisoners of war soon after the Red Army captured the city in 1944.

Admission 6/3Lt.