Biržai Regional Park Visitor Center houses the exposition intended to introduce the exceptional values of this protected area. The exposition is mainly focused on the topic “The region of the collapsing ground” because Biržai region is known for sinkholes, land subsidence, and interesting geological processes.
Biržai is a unique region with the land surface that goes through active formation by changing the landscape. The ground sinking occurs after gypsum deposits are washed out by groundwater followed by formation of misterious sinkholes: some sinkholes are dry (a famous object of natural heritage...
It is the most prominent monument of bastion castles in Lithuania. The castle was built in 1586-1589 to counter attacks of Swedes. Its construction was funded by Krzysztof Mikołaj "Perkūnas" Radziwiłł. Unfortunately, the castle was twice taken over by Swedes.
After recapturing Biržai, the noble Radziwiłł family has restored the castle in 1655-1669, they have rebuilt it according to the project of the Master Ulrich T. Spinowski. In preparation to fight the Great Northern War, the King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus II and the Russian Tsar Peter the Great signed an agreement in 1701 in Birzai Castle...
Astravas (noble Tyszkiewicz family) manor complex
After Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire, Biržai town was overtaken from the noble Radziwiłł family, that has become poor at the time, by the nobleman Tyszkiewicz. In the middle of the 19th century the new owners have built a glamorous two-storey palace of irregular plan with a low mezzanine, high belvedere, two one-storey wing buildings. The palace was built on the shore of the Lake Širvėna. It was built in the Classicistic and Empire styles. Besides the palace, the manor complex also consisted of stables, a hut of dog handler, mill, outbuildings, arch-shaped...
In spring of 2011, in the sinkhole area of Karajimiškis Landscape Reserve of Biržai Regional Park, where karst phenomena actively form the land surface, in Mantagailiškis “Gojelis” ( Grove ) forest, at the foot of the wall of the north slope of a karst old sinkhole, between rock blocks, speleologists found a burrow leading to a cave. Shortly after the sinkhole, in which this cave was detected and in which the signs that testify to the presence of a badger in this place, was named Barsuko ola ( Badger cave ).
In autumn of 2012, a cognitive-geological path with a compacted soil pavement was built in the...
A karst sinkhole Karvės ola ( Cow‘s Cave ) is a well-type funnelled karst sinkhole that formerly was almost circular in shape. It was about 12 m in diameter at the top north-south direction, and about 10 m in diameter east-west direction. The depth of the sinkhole is 12,6 m.
Today an adjacent smaller sinkhole in the north-east part has mingled with Karvės ola. The total length of the long axis is 22,2 m. The western great part is 15,3 m in diameter, its depth is over 12,5 m, the eastern small part is 9,4 m in diameter, and its depth is about 5,3 m. An underground cavity that has formed instead of dissolved gypsum opens up...
The karst lakelets are the youngest lakelets of this type in Europe. The lakelets have formed during the karst processes. Most of them are located in Kirkilai and Drąseikiai villages and their surroundings. The area of these water bodies is from 30 to 100 m 3 . The average depth of the lakelets is from 0,8 to 4,5 m. The karst lakelets not always sit in one sinkhole. They often integrate several sinkholes or even their groups. One sinkhole can repeatedly collapse even several times, and the collapse of the partitions of the adjacent sinkholes leads to the formation of karst lakes with an intricate contour.
The Lake Kirkilai...
This spring of karst origin, that was declared a geological monument in 1985, is situated in Biržai region, in Likėnai village. It gives start to the stream Smardonė that flows into the river Tatula. The pit of the spring consists of a sinkhole that is reminiscent of an oval funnel with a very sloping bottom. The cross diameters of the sinkhole are 15 and 17 meters. Loamy banks with a height of up to 1,5 m, that are covered with a green turf, rise above the water level of the spring. There are two stream pools with lots of whirlpools (especially during the spring melt) in the pit of this spring, with sludge deposits and rocks (boulders)...
