Buržinskas says wars and occupation kept Merkinė from becoming a tourist gem

Merkinė could have become a major tourist destination if not for wars and occupation, says Žygimantas Buržinskas, director of the Merkinė Regional Museum. In an interview with LRT, he describes returning with his family to the town in Dzūkija, where he grew up, and says he prefers life there to the daily routine of a big city.

Buržinskas says Merkinė’s natural surroundings, quiet and rivers make it an appealing place to live. “You leave the town and enter an endless oasis. You can walk through the forest for 30 kilometres and wonder whether you will meet anyone — perhaps a mushroom picker,” he told LRT.

His parents and grandparents had no connection to Merkinė or Dzūkija. His father discovered an abandoned, unoccupied building while doing a practical placement in the town and later bought it. The family moved there when Buržinskas was a year old.

He recalls a childhood shaped by freedom and time outdoors. As a young child, he sometimes went walking around the village in the morning while his parents were still asleep. As a teenager, he swam in the Nemunas River and nearby lakes, climbed trees and explored views of the town.

Buržinskas stayed in Merkinė for school, despite his parents suggesting that he study in Vilnius. After graduating, he moved to the capital to study archaeology, but continued researching his hometown and wrote his bachelor’s thesis about its town hall. He says that studying Merkinė helped him discover what he wanted to pursue professionally.

Merkinė was among Lithuania’s ten most important towns, according to the article, and rulers regularly visited it. Buržinskas says that, without wars and occupation, Merkinė and other towns could have become tourist gems. He now describes his work for Merkinė as a kind of mission, sometimes even going to mix concrete himself.