On 27^th of October 2016 the restored Aristavele manor-house of the XVIII century and the Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Center therein was opened for society, community of culture, wooden heritage specialists. It also marks the end of the project activities. More than 125 persons attended this event.

Event participants had an opportunity to get acquainted with the manor-house restoration work which was carried out by JSC “Kortas“ during the project implementation. Violeta Reipaitė, director of the Museum briefly told about the history of the emergence of the Aristavele manor-house in the Museum. She explained about steps of maintenance work on this too.

Dr. Rasa Bertasiute and Romas Valantis, specialists of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Centre interactively presented the operational objectives of this centre.

The Museum architect Ruslanas Aranauskas talked about the problems and solutions in implementing restoration work of the Aristavele manor- house.

Museums curators Vingaudas Baltrusaitis and Ina Dringelyte presented the collections of manors furniture and textile stored in the Museum .

The event ended with a concert of Kaunas quartet (headed by S. Bartulis), who performed works by composers who were “contemporaries” of the Aristavele manor- house.

An event to publicize the end of the and opening of of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Centre was held as part of the project „Development of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Center in the former Aristavėlė manor house“, sponsored by Republic of Lithuania and EEA and Norwegian finacial mechanisms.

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Students of Vienozinskis art faculty of Kaunas college introduced the visitors to their projects of restaurated antique furniture.  Architect R. Aranauskas led an excursion to the currently being restaurated 18th century the manor house of Aristavele.  In addition to all of these activities, the visitors could enjoy many more.   We hope that visitors appreciate Lithuanian wooden heritage and recognize a need to care for it.

The festival was held as part of the project „Development of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Center in the former Aristavėlė manor house“, sponsored by Republic of Lithuania and EEA and Norwegian finacial mechanisms.

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Over thirty attendees, to include cultural heritage experts, students, owners, architects, museum staff, craftsmen, received couple of theoretical lectures.  However, main focus of the training was the assessment of in situ state of wooden heritage objects and key aspects of preparing maintenance and care plans. Training attendees completed tasks prepared by specialists of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Centre dr. Rasa Bertasiute and Romas Valancius. During the training attendees in the Museum visited Aristaveles manor house and in this Manor transferred granary, manor hause in  the Sveicarija village (Jonava district) , granarys in Stuciai (Utena district) and Salos (Ignalina district) village and on the next day –  small town synagogue in Ziezmariai (Kaisiadoriai district). Training attendees benefited from live discussions while completing the tasks and had an opportunity to gain and deepen  their understanding of maintaining and caring for the wooden heritage. Mr. Tore Per Sonju,  an teacher at the project partner‘s Building Restoration Center of Bukerud County Administration,  gladly shared his experience and knowledge.  He recommended to focus on research on craftsmenship of various locations and revival and conservation of traditions.

The training was held as part of the project „Development of Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Center in the former Aristavėlė manor house“, sponsored by Republic of Lithuania and EEA and Norwegian finacial mechanisms.

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Project start date: 01/07/2014

Project duration: 22 months Project partner: Restoration Centre in Buskerud ( Buskerud bygningsvernsenter), Norway, www.buskerudbygningsvern.no

The total value of the project: 2 700 464,49 LTL / 782 108,57 EUR.

The Museum during this project continue the development of wooden built heritage conservation, research and training centre. which was initiated in 2008-2010 when the museum implemented the project “Revitalizing and Teaching of Lithuanian Traditional Handicrafts and Restorers of Wooden Heritage in the Open Air Museum of Lithuania through the Restoration of Aristavele Manor House”, funded by EEA and Norwegian financial mechanisms.

Main activities of the Project:  Restoration and adaptation of Aristavele manor-house for Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Centre.  Purchase of equipments and furniture for Wooden Built Heritage Conservation, Research and Training Centre  Employe and train two new cultural heritage specialists  10 days training course of 5 employees of Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Norway  3 days training course in Lithuania  One Day Festival of Wooden Heritage in the Open Air Museum of Lithuania.

„Development of wooden built heritage conservation, research and training center in the former Aristavele manor house“ Nr. EEE – LT06 – KM – 01 – K – 01 – 100

The main problem tackled by the project is rapidly deteriorating condition of wooden architectural heritage in Lithuania. Currently there are about 2863 wooden heritage buildings, including 1519 separate and group objects, 700 buildings in ethnographic villages and 644 objects of small architecture. All this heritage group is in danger of extinction: 38 per cent of wooden manor buildings, 34 per cent of ethnographic buildings and 33 per cent of the other wooden heritage objects are in a very poor condition. Wooden heritage in Lithuania is vanishing due to neglect, but also because of mishandling. The main reasons for the bad treatment of wooden heritage are the lack of funds, insufficient qualification of heritage preservation and restoration specialists, poor understanding of the owners/managers of wooden heritage objects about their value and restoration, and low awareness of general public about wooden heritage. So, the second problem tackled by the project is unawareness of Lithuanian public about the value of wooden heritage and the need to preserve it.

Cultural heritage cannot be preserved without an evidence-based knowledge acquired through research, therefore, a considerable amount of poor wooden heritage buildings, and the need for their research makes a huge field of research and restoration activity in Lithuania. Lithuanian Open-Air Museum (LOAM) has a 40-year experience of maintenance, conservation and repair of old wooden constructions, which could be very useful for other individuals and organizations responsible for maintenance and restoration of wooden built heritage. Moreover, the museum has a collection of 140 old wooden buildings, which provides a good base for research, training and practice of traditional crafts and techniques. In the period of 2008-2010 the museum implemented a project funded by EEA and Norwegian financial mechanisms called “Revitalizing and Teaching of Lithuanian Traditional Handicrafts and Restorers of Wooden Heritage in the Open-Air Museum of Lithuania through the Restoration of Aristavele Manor House”. During the project a wooden heritage research and conservation centre was initiated. LOAM would like to develop the centre and, thus, to contribute to the tackling of the aforementioned problems by carrying out in situ research of wooden heritage objects and though training and counselling of their owners and managers. So, the overall aim of the project is to improve conditions for research of wooden built heritage and the counselling of its owners and managers in all regions of Lithuania through the development of a wooden built heritage research, conservation and training centre. The second aim of the project is to raise awareness of general public about wooden built heritage, its value and preservation. In order to develop activities of the centre, it is necessary to accomplish restoration of its base – Aristavele manor-house, to accommodate the centre’s facilities, to purchase the necessary equipment, devices and tools, and to train staff members of the centre and social partners. The Norwegian partner would be involved in training activities to share its experience and good practice in research, conservation and counselling. Thus, the project would contribute considerably to the efficiency of wooden heritage preservation and allow new services to be developed. The LOAM centre could implement specialised research of wooden heritage and provide adequate training and counselling services to the owners and managers of wooden heritage objects in all Lithuania.

Project‘s work group:

Project Manager: Violeta Reipaitė, Open Air Museum of Lithuania Director

Project Accountant: Elvyra Arbačiauskienė, Open Air Museum of Lithuania Chief Accountant

Project training and publicizing activities Coordinator: Gita Šapranauskaitė, Open Air Museum of Lithuania senior museum curator

Project Procurement Specialist: Erika Žukauskaitė, Open Air Museum of Lithuania

Contact information:

Gita Šapranauskaitė, Open Air Museum of Lithuania senior museum curator,

Project‘s coordinator for training and publicizing activities Mobile: +37069917869 E-mail: gita.sapranauskaite@llbm.lt

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Dr. E. J. Morkunas and architect R. Aranauskas discussed the most interesting moments of how the manor house was transferred to the museum.  The highlight of the publicity event was contract signing by the museum director V. Reipaite and Z. Overlingiene – general director of contractor firm “Kortas”. Wood workers requested that Z. Overlingiene pass a quality test and build a model of a barn.  She passed the test with excellent marks. Additionally, senior museum curator G. Sapranauskaite provided an overview of project activities; and Dr. R. Bertasiute briefed attendees on the history of Aristavele manor house.

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The project was financed by the program of European Economic Area Finacial Mechanism and Lithuanian government. Five Museum employees attended this training: Ruslanas Aranauskas – head of architectural division, Monika Kairytė – restaurateur, Gita Šapranauskaitė – senior museum curator, and two employees of a to be established Centre for Heritage Conservation, Research, and Training of Wooden Architecture: Dr. Rasa Bertašiūtė – research specialist of history and architecture, and Romualdas Valantis – specialist of technology and construction of wooden housing. As part of the course, Lithuanian students visited Norwegian Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Oslo, (NIKU, www.niku.no) and project partners Buskerud Centre for Construction and Restauration (www.buskerudbygningsvern.no) in Kongsberg and Drammen.

Below are the topics that were discussed during the lectures and field work of the training course:

• Documentation and restauration
• Work methodology as it relates to heritage object assessment, building evaluation, specifics of wooden architecture and restauration.
• Training for wood workers, owners and specialists
• Consulting owners of heritage and best practices.
• Both visited institutions closely collaborate with museums under the open sky.  NIKU with Norwegian Folk Museum (Norsk Folkemuseum) in Oslo; Buskerud Centre for Construction and Restauration is established in the Museum of Cultural Heritage of Eiker and Lagendalen (Eiker og Lagendalen Museum).

These institutions consolidate their resources and utilize their expositions as a platform to teach and train. Lithuanian students had an opportunity to observe the efficiency of such collaboration. You may click Niku and Buskerud for a training course syllabus.

The knowledge gained in this course will be beneficial implementing other parts of the project: international practice conference (activity 1.3.2) and Wooden Heritage Festival (activity 2.1.1) which will take place in the Open Air Museum of Lithuania.

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