About project

Welcome to Utena region — the centre of Selonian lands

We kindly invite you to travel Selonian lands from Sėlė to Salakas and visit ethnographic villages of Strazdai, Šuminai, Vaišnoriškės, Varniškės and Šiaudiniškis, also the wooden churches of Daunoriai Sacred Heart of Jesus and Kirdeikiai St John the Baptist, the Chapel of Krokulė, the stone Salakas Church with an impressive churchyard fence, the Writer’s Hill, Antalieptė Monastery of the Holy Cross, Šeimyniškiai mound and its surroundings, Taurapilis mound, Lūžai mound and the hollowed stone. These objects of urban heritage are one of the unique characteristics of Utena region. Archaeological objects, as well as language, crafts and traditions are the heritage of the Selonian tribe. The heritage dating back to the pagan times is interesting, although not so well-known even to Lithuanians. The historical fact that Lithuania was the last pagan state in Europe (the process of christianisation began only during the reign of the King Mindaugas) is a strong force, attracting tourists and turning gazes towards Lithuania and the lands of the old Selonians.

Explore the Selonian heritage and get to know the cultural peculiarities of Utena region at traditional festivals: autumn equinox, the Day of Baltic Unity, the Day of Fire in Užpaliai, Pottery Fair in Leliūnai, the Day of Harvest and Crafts in Dusetos, community birthday and Cherry Flowering Festival in Tauragnai, Mink į Vyžuonas festival in Vyžuonos, Independent Cinema Festival in Saldutiškis, Banga children’s and youth creative festival in Sudeikiai, St Virgin Mary of the Scapular feast in Daugailiai, St John feast in Kuktiškės, the Assumption feast in Biliakiemis, St Ann feast in Vajasiškis, Particle feast in Antaliepė, St Peter’s feast in Salakas, as well as Utena city’s birthday in Utena.

East Aukštaitija has old crafting traditions, related to making household items, traditional national clothing and other handmade things. Their traditional expression and permanence, representing long-time values and local identity make crafting an attractive activity, neatly fitting the modern trends of ecology, naturalism and other ideas. Ethnocultural valuables and local crafts of Utena region stand on the shoulders of folk artists and craftsmen, as well as active non-governmental organisations. Upon your visit you will be able to get to know the crafts of stone cutting, weaving, furniture making, carpentry, carpentry, jewellery, smithery, decorative paper-cutting, bakery, felting, cross-making, Easter egg painting, knitting, pottery, basket weaving, sewing, embroidery, joinery, roofing, spoon-making, toy-making, candle-making, herbalism, traditional crop production and traditional bee-keeping.

Alaušas international plain-air of painting, photography and sculpture in Sudeikiai, organ concerts at Leliūnai church and Grok armonika folk festival in Kuktiškės are all a part of the cultural heritage of Aukštaitija. Thus, everyone visiting these events will be able to look for Selonian heritage in contemporary art and find it there.

UTENA REGION LOCAL ACTION GROUP

is a non-profit organisation, acting as a legal entity in a rural area in the fields of social issues, education, science, culture, sports and similar areas, and providing public services in the said fields for the members of the rural society. The entire activity of the organisation is aimed at implementing the primary goals.

The memorandum of association was signed on 22 December 2008 at the founding summit. Utena Region Local Activity Group was registered at the Register of Legal Entities on 20 January 2009. Its legal form is an association. Utena Region Local Activity Group has four founders: Alina Plistkova, Kęstutis Udras, Mindaugas Kuodis and Jolita Umbrasienė.

The Board of the Utena Region Local Activity Group consists of 15 members, while the entire association has 42 members.

LAG mission

Utena Region LAG is a modern organisation, providing high-quality consultation services, promoting communities’ activity and entrepreneurship in Utena region.

LAG values

The activity of Utena LAG is based on the following values:

• Partnership — the core value, which helped to establish Utena Region Local Activity Group, gathering representatives of the civil society, business and governmental sector.
• Public spirit — constant improvement through challenges, being able to make optimum decisions, supported by families, friends and the surrounding community.
• Focus on the community — this means that Utena Region LAG does its best to consider the local resources and use them in solving local community issues.
• Availability — Utena Region LAG is easy to access, whenever clients need its services.
• Honesty in fulfilling commitments, being truthful to ourselves and others, as well as respectful to both natural and legal persons.
• Innovation — showing interest in what’s new, innovations and the ability to implement them in practice.
• Responsibility — the natural state of the organisation, contributing to its development and growing stronger.
• Positivity or faith in the chosen direction, which may be maintained only by using facts and trusting teamwork and friends.
• Support to applicants for projects in Utena region.
• Publicity — Utena Region Local Activity Group is open to new people, organisations and ideas, sharing its experience to everyone interested in the processes of rural development.

LAG territory vision until 2023

In 2023 Utena region will be an attractive and safe place to live and work, cherishing its natural and cultural resources. Members of the rural communities will consist of future-oriented enterprising, communicative and cooperative citizens, engaged in self-expression, enjoying an access to the newest technologies, as well as promoting their national and community values.

About the Tourism Communication and Marketing Development Programme 2016-2023 of Utena Region Local Action Group

Being aware of the benefits of tourism, Utena Region Local Action Group prepared the Tourism Communication and Marketing Development Programme 2016-2023 (further referred to as the Programme).

1. The Programme was created in order to define development goals of tourism in Utena region, which include creating competitive tourism products and services, developing tourism infrastructure and services, creating and promoting tourism business-friendly environment, as well as the implementation of effective marketing and communication measures according to the LEADER principles.
2. Consistent promotion of the tourism objects and activities in Utena region and its improvement as a tourist destination, requires active information distribution, particularly focusing on the development and application of electronic marketing measures, as well as regional and international projects, contributing to the implementation of tourism marketing goals.
3. The Programme for the next seven-year period provides and highlights the use and promotion of electronic marketing measures in order to promote and attract more tourists to the public objects of cultural and natural heritage. The Programme also includes cooperation with local partners, partners from other Lithuanian regions and neighbouring countries, also common local, regional and international tourism marketing projects, as well as common marketing projects for the public and the private sectors. This could be achieved by a rational use of natural and cultural resources in Utena region, promotion of traditions and events, also using electronic marketing measures for introducing tourism services for international and local markets.
4. The Programme was prepared for the purpose of tourist information. The priority of the Programme is active use of electronic communication and innovative means of information in accordance with local tourism products by supporting and promoting connections between various tourism sectors, as well as mobile tourism in order to improve the positions and visibility of Utena region, its tourism sector and types of tourism in online search engines, social networks, exhibitions, online and inbound tourism priority markets.
5. The Programme was created in order to develop tourism as one of the potential economic sectors of Utena region, thus contributing to the implementation of the Local Development Strategy (LDS) and other strategies, as well as helping to organise human and financial resources, increase the income of the local residents, create new business opportunities, attract private investments, create new jobs and thus increase the competitiveness of the tourism destination.

The Programme was approved by the Board of Utena Region Local Action Group, which also includes representatives of Utena Region Municipality. The preparation and implementation of the Programme is based on the articles of association of Utena Region Local Action Group. The implementation of the Programme may involve using EU funds for investments, obtained by winning project funding. Other possible financial resources include Utena Region Municipality or the funds accumulated by Utena Region Local Action Group.

About the project Increasing the awareness and popularity of the natural and cultural heritage, preserved in Utena region

For the purposes of its mission and vision, Utena Region Local Activity Group is implementing the project Increasing the awareness and popularity of the natural and cultural heritage, preserved in Utena region.  The purpose of the project is to use e-marketing measures to increase the awareness and popularity of Utena region and improve its image as a priority tourism region through objects of cultural heritage: traditional celebrations, crafts, modern art and urban heritage.

 Utena region is one of the priority regions for tourism development in Lithuania, because this region is full of tourism resources and opportunities for developing sustainable and cultural tourism by preserving the natural and cultural environment. The region’s unique natural resources outshine the abundant and also unique cultural potential, which does not receive enough publicity and, therefore, provides little contribution to the development of the image of tourism and attracting tourists.

The implementation of the project will involve creating eight e-marketing measures: a website, search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine advertising (SEA), social media marketing (SMM), video advertising on the internet, mobile marketing, e-mail marketing and content marketing (e-catalogues).

These measures will help tourists to get to know the region’s unique natural objects, cultural environment, urban heritage, traditions, exceptional lifestyle, events, cultural events, as well as other creative and cultural processes.

The e-marketing measures will increase the awareness of the objects of cultural heritage in Utena region and attract more tourists. The project will create added value and contribute to the improvement of the region’s cultural, social and economic situation.

The results of the project as the added value could be used for strengthening the society’s cultural identity and highlighting cultural heritage, adapting it for education, strengthening cultural identity, other social needs and business development.

Population distribution in Selonia from the beginning of the Common Era to the establishment of the state

The historical situation of Selonia, located between Lithuania and Latvia is raising the interest of researchers from both of these countries. The outlines drawn by the late 19th–early 20th c. promoters of the Selonian culture — August Bielenstein, Mikus Skruzitis and Kazimieras Būga — were followed by a number of researchers, although most of them were Latvian. Linguistic studies became the basis for the development of the image of the Selonian tribe.

Silence from historians, as well as a relatively small amount of archaeological expeditions and researches signify that the ancient history of these lands was neglected, while conflicting opinions in the narrow academic circle confirm the fact that the development of Selonia was much more complex than it would seem.

Since the very first centuries of the Common Era north eastern Lithuania was characterised by brushed pottery culture, mostly familiar from the abundant mound material. At the beginning of the Common Era these lands were inhabited by the so-called culture of northern Lithuanian and southern Latvian barrows with stone circles, which came here from western Lithuania. Its major quality is the long-term multiple burials in the entire barrow. Sometimes the same barrow would feature up to a dozen or more graves.

At the same time the tribe had undergone important changes on social and economic levels: switching to agriculture as the major field of industry together with stockbreeding, also the use of iron for weapons and tools, the variety of coloured metal items and moving out from cramped mounds into spacious surrounding areas and beyond, where brushed pottery was already replaced by ceramics with rough and even surface.

Meanwhile the 3rd c. already features new burial traditions. The characteristics of the north-eastern Lithuanian archaeological material shows that the stage of cultural interaction was already over. The tradition of barrows and multiple burials were very deeply rooted in Selonia. This was one of the brightest phenomena of the Selonian culture and also the main argument in searching for its origins in the Roman period.

During the second half of the first millennium north-eastern Lithuanian region stands out by its material culture and burial peculiarities that define its territory, which did not change much until the establishment of the state of Lithuania. In the east the boundaries of the territory ran along what today is the boundary between modern Utena and Panevėžys counties: slightly north of Lake Čičiris-Antazavė-Dusetos and south of Jūžintai-Svėdasai, along the confluence of Jara and Šventoji rivers — Latava.  Also, the regions of Rokiškis and, partially, Biržai and Kupiškis.

Thus, the centre of the territory once inhabited by the Selonian tribe includes the current regions of Utena and Zarasai. This territory includes lots of elements of historical-ethnographic heritage, referred to as Selonians by our grandfathers. One of such examples of Selonian heritage is the pagan altar stone on the shore of Šavašas rivulet. The stone and a number of other interesting places have currently became accessible to tourists thanks to the new Šavaša cognitive path, developed by the employees of Gražutė Regional Park.

The territory is characterised by the Aukštaitian dialect with its variations in different districts, as well as ethnic culture and customs.

These lands were also the home of a number of Lithuania noblemen, such as the families of counts Pliateriai, Strutinskiai, Tiškevičiai and Mohl, etc.

Natural resources

Selonian lands take up the larger part of the current ethnographic region of East Aukštaitija. This is a very significant and most-visited Lithuanian tourist region, known for its picturesque landscapes, abundance of cultural and historical monuments, as well as convenient geographic situation between Latvia and Belarus with Vilnius nearby.

One of the major tourist destinations is Aukštaitija National Park, established in 1974. The park is characterised by unique nature with a number of rare species of fauna and flora. The lakes are full of fish, forests — mushrooms, berries and animals, making the region attractive not only for passive tourists, but also fishing, as well as berry and mushroom-picking enthusiasts.

The lakes of Aukštaitija region offer a number of water trails, surrounded by vacation homes, which belong to various institutions, organisations and private persons. Not far from Utena, on the bank of Kloviniai dam, there is the unique Wedding Hill, decorated with wooden sculptures, illustrating a wedding ceremony and its participants, made by folk artists.

The locals are ready to welcome rural tourism enthusiasts from larger Lithuanian cities and abroad.  The rich biodiversity of Aukštaitija region is an important part of the EU Natura 2000 network. Some animal and plant species are either very rare or already extinct in Western Europe.

Selonian culinary heritage

Would you like to explore the local foods? Look for the sign of culinary heritage and it will lead you to places — shops, cafeterias, restaurants, food producers and processors — where you will find something made from raw materials grown in Selonia and made according to recipes of local mothers and grandmothers.

The Culinary Heritage Europe network was developed in order to promote regional foods for tourists all over Europe. The concept of culinary heritage was developed in Skåne, Sweden, and the island of Bornholm, Denmark, in 1995. The idea was so attractive that it lead to the establishment of the Culinary Heritage Europe network in 1998.

The Selonian region joined the network in 2001.  The members include food processing companies and cafeterias, beer or wine producers, as well as rural tourism homesteads in north-eastern Aukštaitija region.

„The way one eats shows the way one works”

Lithuanians have always liked tasty and rich food. There is even a saying that “The way one eats shows the way one works”. Selonian kitchen is famous for its simplicity. The taste of various dishes are characterised by their major ingredients, sometimes supplemented with various seasonings.

Rye bread is one of the oldest and major food products in Selonia, eaten every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There are two types of traditional bread — leavened and scalded bread.  Leavened bread has been known since the old days, while scalded bread — only since the early 20th c.

Potatoes, regarded as the “second bread” are also consumed all-year-round. The most popular dishes include stuffed potato dumplings (cepelinai), potato sausages (vėdarai) and potato pancakes. Dairy products have also been very popular since the old days, featuring Lithuanian white cheese: fresh or dried, sour or sweet, or seasoned with caraway.

Pork, be it fresh, salted or smoked, was always the most popular choice of meat. Especially all kinds of sausages. People also like mutton, beef, vial, venison, elk, boar, hare and poultry.

The oldest traditional drinks include mead (produced using natural honey), kvass and beer, as well as apple and berry wine. Selonia is also famous for various pancakes.