With a memorial oak planted in 1930, an old rectory and a hare museum, Sasnava brings together a range of cultural themes. The museum displays more than 6,000 figurines; its educational programme also explores cake baking and the origin of the place name. This makes it possible to plan a trip around specific interests: a special commemoration, architectural history or a collection with a complementary learning programme.

Memorial Oak and Old Rectory

In Sasnava stands an oak planted in 1930 to commemorate the journey through Lithuania of an image of Vytautas the Great. The connection is therefore not simply to the person in general: the oak is specifically associated with the journey made by his image. The planting year and the reason for the commemoration can be considered together—as a precisely dated marker of a particular story. This distinction offers insight into the local history: the oak represents not only a date, but also the event it commemorates.

The old rectory in Sasnava was built in 1905–1906 and is a listed architectural monument. Its construction took place about a quarter of a century before the oak was planted. The dates refer to different things: for the rectory, its construction; for the oak, its planting. This lets you distinguish the building’s history from the commemoration in time, rather than treating both references as one general historical statement. The rectory offers an architectural perspective, while the oak draws attention to a specific commemorative event.

Hare Museum and Educational Programme

The Sasnava Community Hare Museum shifts the focus from buildings and memorials to a collection. It displays more than 6,000 hare figurines. The smallest are one centimetre tall, while the largest are three metres tall. The range spans from centimetres to metres; together with the number of items, it gives a concrete sense of the collection’s breadth. Unlike the rectory and the oak, the focus here is not on a construction date or a commemorative event, but on hare figurines in a wide range of sizes.

The museum offers the educational programme “Zuikių mokyklos mokslai” (“Hare School Studies”). Visitors learn the basics of cake baking and discover something about the origin of the place name Sasnava. The programme combines a practical learning activity with local history: on the one hand, there are baking basics; on the other, the question of the place’s name. Advance registration is required. If you include the programme in your travel plans, make sure to take this requirement into account beforehand. Visitors also receive a souvenir from Zuikienė. This adds both a learning opportunity and a distinctive programme detail to the collection theme.

Choosing What to Explore in Sasnava

When planning your trip, you can distinguish between the themes according to their focus: the oak commemorates the journey of an image, the rectory is a listed monument with a dated construction period, and the museum offers a collection spanning a wide range of sizes. If you are looking for an activity with educational content as well as a collection, the educational programme is a good option; remember to arrange the required registration. When searching for hotels in Sasnava, you can start by considering which of these cultural themes you would like to shape your stay.

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