Kupiškis District Municipality
Aukštaitija
village ethnography and memorial museum
Unės Babickaitės g. 15, Laukminiškiai village, Kupiškis District
55.95900, 25.06490
45 minutes-1 hour by prior arrangement
warm season; by prior arrangement
Laukminiškiai Museum, Babickas family parental home
Laukminiškiai Village Museum: a homestead by Kupiškis Reservoir
Laukminiškiai Village Museum is set in a traditional Aukštaitija homestead by Kupiškis Reservoir, about 14 km from Kupiškis. It is the parental home of the notable Babickas family, turned into a museum where two themes meet: memory of prominent local people and old village life.
The museum is a branch of Kupiškis Ethnography Museum. It is small and quiet, but important as a memory marker in an emptied Aukštaitija village that produced more than one remarkable person.
The Babickas family: Petras and Unė
The best-known children of Laukminiškiai were brother and sister Petras and Unė Babickas. Petras Babickas (1903-1991) was Lithuania's first radio announcer and presenter, a photography pioneer who won a gold medal at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition, as well as a writer and diplomat who worked for many years at Lithuania's representation in Rio de Janeiro.
His sister Unė Babickaitė (1897-1961), known on stage as Unė Baye, was an internationally active actress and director who performed and created in the United States, Paris, and London. Part of the museum exhibition is dedicated to the life and work of these two figures.
Village homestead and exhibition
The exhibition has two parts. One is dedicated to the memory of Petras Babickas and Unė Babickaitė; the other presents everyday life, customs, and traditions of surrounding villages in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its core consists of more than a thousand exhibits and extensive local-history material about regional people.
The museum in the traditional homestead was arranged in 2002 by teacher Janina Puronienė with helpers and pupils, and it has operated as a Kupiškis Ethnography Museum branch since 2001. Ordinary village houses thus became a place of ethnography, literature, and art history.
Visiting
The museum is small and works mainly in the warm season, so a visit must be arranged in advance. The locality is small and there is no permanent public schedule. Opening hours found online often belong to the main Kupiškis Museum, so do not rely on them for this branch.
Allow about 45 minutes to an hour. The trip is easy to combine with the shore of Kupiškis Reservoir, the main Kupiškis Ethnography Museum, or the Adomas Petrauskas Museum in Uoginiai.
