The Gervėčių marsh, located in Ažvinčiai forest, not far from the village, is protected as a reservation. Almost all buildings were built in the 3rd decade of the 20th c., when the village had its own steam sawmill. The foundations are built of stone with pine log walls, as well as straw, chip or slate roofs. The first individual homestead belongs to Silvestras Žilėnas. It features three monumental buildings: the residential house, the granary and the stall. The monumental bathhouse decayed in the second half of the 20th c. The residential building is the “two-end” house with stone foundations. One of the oldest buildings is the barn, built in the late 19th c. and renovated in 1976. The stall was rebuilt in 1922 by Pranas Kliukas. The residential house is an architectural monument as well. The house of Juozas Šuminas is a “one-end” residential building, which stands in the place of the old “smoke” residential house. In 1905 the “smoke” residential house was supplemented with a south-western end, while in 1964 the house was demolished, leaving only the porch. The solid granary was built in 1936-37. Vaišnoriškės village was granted the status of an ethnographic village soon after the foundation of Aukštaitija National Park. Even the institutions working in the Soviet era ensured that people renovating the homesteads would refrain from using modern materials, turning to old-fashioned methods instead. They also wanted to replace the slate roofs with wood, chip, straw or reed roofing. However, people already used combine harvesters and there were no more straws for roofs. Nobody produced any wood roofing among locals or in the nearest one hundred kilometres either. The restoration of ethnographic buildings in those days was a costly and serious issue for the home-owners. Many of them couldn’t fulfil these requirements. There is no doubt that the restraints and requirements for homestead maintenance and renovation, posed by the Soviet authorities, hastened the decay of ethnographic villages. A Story of One of the Homesteads in Vaišnoriškės The winner in the category of a reconstructed homestead at one of the competitions, hosted by Aukštaitija National Park, was Virginijus Sabutis, whose homestead is located at the ethnographic Vaišnoriškės village. Virginijus Sabutis is a lawyer, living in Vilnius. The homestead was given to him as a present by his grandfather, who had bought the homestead from someone else. Thus, this was a very valuable present, and not only because Vaišnoriškės ethnographic village is located in an extraordinarily beautiful place. Virginijus told the media of Utena district that the reconstruction of his homestead took almost thirty years. The condition of the buildings was catastrophic with leaking roofs and lopsided walls. The owner also needed quite a lot of imagination to restore the homestead to its previous condition. He also has been interested in old-style homesteads, agricultural tools and household things since his youth. Villagers used to build their own houses, carriages, sleighs, scutchers, spinning tools, tubs, chests and wardrobes themselves, while village blacksmiths used to not only take care of horse shoeing, but also made all kinds of household tools. All buildings and tools used to be not only functional: their shapes and decoration elements tell us about our ancestors’ understanding of beauty, world-view and lifestyle… Mr Virginijus also made use of the skills of joinery, learned in youth from his father Antanas, as well as his help. The works done during holidays and free time took about thirty years. Relatives and close friends offered their help as well. So far the homestead needs an icehouse, which was a common element at the majority of homesteads in Vaišnoriškės, because many locals were fishermen, selling a part of their catch and thus in a need of a place to store it. The example of Mr Virginijus’ homestead shows that preservation and reconstruction of national heritage and ethnographic peculiarities is not that easy as it would seem at first. It is not enough to go to a shopping centre and purchase some construction materials or hiring a constructions company to do the work. Building bridges between the past and the future requires not only will, but also understanding, knowledge, money, time and lots of other types of investments. However, this helps to maintain the connection with one’s roots and the rich history and ethnography of the Lithuanian nation.
