Description
The Visitor Center’s exhibition features information kiosks, video playback equipment, interactive displays, and recordings of nature sounds, allowing visitors to experience a sense of being in the midst of nature. Monitors on the exhibition wall show a short film about the formation of Lake Sartai and the regional park’s symbol—the long-eared owl. You’ll find detailed information about the natural and cultural heritage sites located within the regional park. A separate display featuring video footage is dedicated to horse racing, a tradition in Dusetos that dates back more than 100 years. Sartai Regional Park preserves a landscape of lake basins and hills, featuring 29 lakes, hills that encircle Lake Sartai in an almost unbroken arc, forests, and marshes. The centerpiece of the regional park is Lake Sartai, the most branched lake of the Lithuanian basin-type (rinnal) lakes. The last glacier cracked here, following the earth’s natural fractures, and as it melted, the contours of the present-day lake were formed. It is the fourth-largest lake in Lithuania, boasting the longest shoreline (79 km). The lake’s shoreline is only 11 km shorter than that of our Baltic coastline. Near Dusetos, the Šventoji River—the jewel of Aukštaitija—flows into Lake Sartai and traces its northernmost bend there. The regional park is home to what are likely the largest populations in Lithuania of spotted, narrow-leaved, and yellow marsh orchids, as well as marsh saxifrage; it is also where the fungus *Circular-spored Bobausis* was first discovered in Lithuania. Among the 100 protected cultural heritage sites, the 18th-century architectural monuments are particularly valuable: the Church of the Holy Trinity in Dusetos, renowned for its ecclesiastical art, and its four-story Baroque-style brick bell tower, built in 1794; the Church of Divine Providence in Antazavė, founded by the Pliater family, along with its gate and bell tower, both built in the 19th century. Another architectural monument of equal value is the Bobriškis Orthodox Church—the first Old Believer house of prayer in Lithuania. Lake Sartai and the nearby town of Dusetos have long been famous for their winter trotting horse races. Their history dates back more than a century! Photos of Sartai Regional Park
