Kėdainiai Regional Museum

Ticket price:

Entry fee – 3,00 EUR/person

50 percent rebate applies:

to pupils of the Republic of Lithuania and other countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area who are studying in accordance with a general education program

to students at the high school level who are studying on a full-time basis, citizens of the Republic of Lithuania and other Member States of the European Union and the European Economic Area who are studying in high schools of the Member States of the European Union or the European Economic Area on a full-time basis as well as to pupils who are studying in accordance with a formal professional training in group learning form on a full-time basis or by individual learning forms by autonomous learning process;

to compulsory military service soldiers, military volunteers, members of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union;

to persons who have reached retirement age (up to 80 years);

to people who suffered from the occupations in 1939-1990: political prisoners and exiled persons, inmates of ghettos, concentration and other forced camps;

to defenders of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania, who suffered from the USSR aggression on January 11-13 and later on;
to participants of the resistance against the 1940–1990 occupations: military volunteers and freedom fighters.

Free entry to permanent exhibitions and exhibitions applies:

to preschool children;

to orphans and children deprived of parental care;

to disabled persons and personal assistants and any person accompanying them (one accompanying person to one disabled person);

to persons having attained 80 years and older; to workers of museums of Lithuania, members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM);

to pupils of educational institutions of the district municipality of Kėdainiai on Wednesdays from September 1 to June 30;

to ALL visitors on the last Sunday of every month, during a festival of Kėdainiai town, the European Night of Museums and the International Tourism Day.

MULTICULTURAL CENTRE

THE BUILDING’S HISTORY:

The Multicultural Centre was established in 2002 in the restored former small winter synagogue of the 19th c.

A synagogue (Gr. synagoge – a meeting, congregation) means meeting and the Jewish temple, serves the following three purposes: religious services, studies and community meetings.

The heated Small winter synagogue of the great Beit Midrash (studies house) was built by the Great synagogue (in which Kėdainiai Art school is currently located) from 1837 to 1857. The building has 12 windows, in the western side there is a porch, from which one can enter the men’s hall in the ground floor and a gallery of the first floor, dedicated for women. The main premise in the synagogue is a men’s prayer hall; there, the most important thing is Aron Kodesh and a place of Bimah between four large columns. Alongside the Small synagogue there also was a building, which housed a prison and was a living place for a shochet – a ritual slaughterer. A white gate with a sundial leading to the synagogues yard, connected this house and the Small synagogue. This way a complex of three buildings was formed. Unfortunately, the slaughterer’s house and the gate were destroyed during the World War II and the Soviet period. Only both synagogues – the Great summer and the Small winter synagogues – survived to our day.

The Small winter synagogue was heated; its interior was modest.

On this building, in 2023 a memorial plaque reminding in three languages – Lithuanian, English and Hebrew – the fact that Kėdainiai had become refuge of Mir Yeshiva, was unveiled. In a background of confusion and cruel acts during the World War II, for a short period Kėdainiai became refuge for Mir Yeshiva, a leading Judaism spiritual academy.

ACTIVITY OF THE MULTICULTURAL CENTRE:

The key activities of the Multicultural Centre: arranging of concerts of chamber, choral and jazz music, organising of art exhibitions of professional and amateurs’ artists. Conducting educational activities, presenting culture and history of nations that lived in Kėdainiai and Lithuania, paying particular attention to the Jewish heritage and education about the Holocaust.

In 2004, at the initiative of the International commission for the evaluation of the crime of the Nazi and Soviet occupation regimes in Lithuania the Commission and the Multicultural Centre concluded a contract establishing Tolerance Training Centre. It was a beginning of a nice process and within a few years Tolerance Training Centre were established in many schools of Kėdainiai district, which cooperate with the Multicultural Centre organising various events, commemoration of memorable days, actions and participating in projects. The Multicultural Centre maintains close relations with history teachers of Kėdainiai town and district secondary schools, which participate with their students in events and educational programmes organised by the Multicultural Centre.

Thanks to the project implemented this year ‘Modernisation of the Multicultural Centre of Kėdainiai Regional Museum’, in February 2023 the Multicultural Centre opens its doors for visitors after modernisation, with acquired necessary equipment and with a new interactive and modern exposition ‘Ich bin Keidaner’ presenting Kėdainiai Jewish community history.