Panevėžys County

Panevėžys County in northeastern Lithuania is a rural region of fields, lakes, and manor houses. A trip to Panevėžys takes you to the country's fifth-largest city, known for its theater and art scene, as well as to Biržai, Lithuania's beer capital, and to Rokiškis, home to one of the finest manor houses in the Baltics.

Landscape and Location

The county lies in the historic region of Aukštaitija. The landscape is flat to gently rolling, with farmland, forests, and rivers such as the Nevėžis. In the north near Biržai, you'll find karst formations: gypsum in the ground below causes sinkholes to appear suddenly, and you can see these karst holes in the regional park. Pasvalys, Kupiškis, and Rokiškis are other small towns. Biržai Regional Park protects forests and karst lakes such as Kirkilai, where a modern observation tower shaped like a boat looks out over the landscape. In autumn, cranes and geese gather in the fields before heading south.

Sights in Panevėžys County

Panevėžys has been a theater town since the work of director Juozas Miltinis from the 1940s to the 1980s; the Miltinis Theater is one of the best known in the country. There is also a puppet theater in a wagon and a collection of contemporary art. In Biržai, a 16th-century bastion fortress that was once the family seat of the Radziwiłł family stands on the shore of Lithuania's oldest artificial lake. Rokiškis has a neoclassical manor house with a park that serves as a regional museum, as well as a neo-Gothic church with a pointed spire. In Kupiškis and Pasvalys, small museums tell the story of rural farming culture, and Uoginiai near Kupiškis has a 19th-century farmstead on display.

Food, Getting There, and Best Time to Visit

Biržai is known for beer from small breweries that brew according to old family recipes; the region is considered the cradle of Lithuanian beer. Rokiškis is home to a large cheese dairy. You can reach Panevėžys by bus from Vilnius in about an hour and a half, and the Via Baltica leads on to Riga. The best time to visit is May through September.