- Place
- Plungė District Municipality
- Region
- Samogitia
- Type
- an evolving open-air memorial to Lithuanian Jewish communities, Litvaks, and rescuers
- Address
- 51 Žemaičių Kalvarijos Street, Medsėdžiai, Plungė district
- Coordinates
- 56.06200, 21.82200
- Visit duration
- 30-60 minutes to read the map and individual memorial markers slowly
- Best time
- in daylight and dry weather, when the map outline is easier to see and the grass more comfortable to cross
Litvakų atminimo sodas, Litvakų atminties sodas, Litvak Garden
It is a map of Lithuania in a meadow, not a conventional garden
The Litvak Memorial Garden is in the village of Medsėdžiai in Žemaitija National Park, about 2 kilometres from the centre of Plateliai. Lithuania's State Service for Protected Areas gives its area as 12 ares and its address as 51 Žemaičių Kalvarijos Street. Some older secondary descriptions contain a figure of 12 hectares, but both the official protected-areas catalogue and a 2024 publication by the Department of National Minorities agree on 12 ares.
Low evergreen shrubs draw the outline of Lithuania across the meadow and establish the composition's scale. Black forged-metal apple trees stand within that outline at the approximate positions of towns and smaller settlements. Because the ground slopes, it is best to view the whole map first from the higher side of the field and then walk down towards individual markers.
Official descriptions present the garden as a symbolic memorial and an installation of historical memory, not as a cemetery or mass-murder site. It should therefore not be confused with the Kaušėnai Memorial near Plungė, which marks a specific place where Holocaust victims were murdered and buried.
A tree, an apple, and a granite pillar carry different scales of memory
Each metal apple tree forged by Artūras Platakis is dedicated to a particular Lithuanian Jewish community destroyed in the Holocaust during Nazi German occupation in 1941-1944. Its position within the outline links that community to geography, but it is a symbolic point on a reduced map, not the precise coordinate of a former synagogue, ghetto, or killing site.
Metal apples attached to the branches commemorate families who lived in the community or particular individuals. The foundation's interactive map shows photographs and dedications connected with trees and apples. Not every apple should automatically be described as a marker for a Holocaust victim: the project's field of memory has expanded, so the meaning of a specific dedication must be read from that dedication itself.
Karelian-granite pillars serve another purpose. They are placed at points associated with the birthplaces of internationally distinguished Litvaks and recall not only destruction but also Lithuanian Jewish contributions to politics, science, the arts, and other fields. An information panel at the entrance gives figures for former communities and includes a reconstructed plan of Plateliai with its buildings and owners.
Jakovas Bunka's work of remembrance and the foundation shaped the project
Jakovas Joselis Bunka was born in Plungė in 1923 and died in 2014. VLE describes him as a folk sculptor who chaired the Plungė Jewish community from 1993 and, from 1996, led the Plungė Jewish Museum he had founded. His wood sculpture combined Lithuanian folk-carving traditions, scenes of Jewish life, and Holocaust memory; in 1986-1992 he created the memorial to murdered Plungė Jews at Kaušėnai.
The Jakovas Bunka Charity and Sponsorship Foundation was established in 2007. VLE documents Jakovas Bunka's long work of preserving Jewish memory in Plungė, while Lithuania's protected-areas authority attributes the garden's establishment to the foundation named after him. A 2024 Department of National Minorities article quotes Eugenijus Bunka explaining how the specific idea arose and identifying himself as the project's initiator and creator. The foundation develops the memorial, while folk artist Artūras Platakis makes the metal trees.
Eugenijus Bunka explained that the land had initially been intended for a Jewish ethnographic farmstead. When that plan did not materialise, the Lithuania-shaped plot became a garden of memory. The first metal trees were installed in 2014, making this a documented contemporary civic and artistic initiative rather than an old local legend.
The garden is deliberately unfinished
The foundation's map uses colours to distinguish progress: green means a community tree stands in the garden, while red means it is still waiting for someone to initiate it. A 2024 Department of National Minorities publication reported about 60 installed metal trees. On 20 July 2026, the official interactive map's Built Trees layer contained 62 markers, but this is a changing count of map entries rather than an independently audited inventory of sculptures on the ground.
This unfinished state is part of the project's method. The foundation does not claim that every historical Lithuanian Jewish community has already been commemorated at once. A new tree or apple appears when a municipality, community, family, or another person carrying a memory contributes to its creation. Photographs and lists made in different years can therefore show different totals.
In 2016, the memorial's concept expanded beyond the towns of present-day Lithuania, adding markers for Litvaks of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and for rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. This explains why the garden's symbols cannot be reduced to one formula. Community trees, personal apples, rescuers' markers, and pillars for notable Litvaks have connected but distinct functions.
Read the memorial from a community down to one name
Begin with the information panel and the full outline of Lithuania. The foundation's map uses the word shtetl, a historical term for a small Eastern European town and its Jewish communal setting. The map makes clear that Jewish life before the Holocaust was not concentrated only in Vilnius or Kaunas: a dense network of communities extended through many of Lithuania's smaller towns.
Then choose one tree and look at its form and apples. The tree speaks for a community, while an individual dedication brings the scale back to a family or person. Moving from a national outline to one surname is the garden's most important artistic experience, turning an abstract scale of loss into concrete memory.
Read the granite pillars separately from the apple trees. Official descriptions name, among others, Zionist leader David Wolffsohn from Darbėnai, Kretinga-born military officer Berek Joselewicz, and Asa Yoelson from Seredžius, better known as Al Jolson. These markers recall Litvak lives and achievements; they do not replace the memorial to destroyed communities.
A visit calls for daylight, time, and respect
The official protected-areas catalogue gives the coordinates as 56.062, 21.822. The point marks the memorial grounds beside Žemaičių Kalvarijos Street; it is not confirmed as a separate entrance, car park, or the beginning of a step-free route. Follow local signs and do not leave a vehicle where it obstructs traffic or access.
As of 20 July 2026, no reliable official source published permanent opening hours, a ticket price, toilets, a dedicated car park, or a fully step-free route. Although this is an outdoor site, that alone is not enough to promise unrestricted or free access at all times. For a guide, a group visit, an event, or specific access requirements, confirm arrangements with the Jakovas Bunka Foundation or the Žemaitija National Park visitor centre before travelling.
Visitors cross grass on a mild slope, so dry weather and comfortable footwear are the most practical choice. Do not step across the living outline of Lithuania, hang from metal branches, move apples, or clean inscriptions. Allow 30-60 minutes for a quiet visit; combined with Plateliai and other Žemaitija National Park sites, the garden fits naturally into a longer route.
