A museum in a Samogitian hut at the site of the 1933 crash of the Lituanica aircraft.
The Museum of Lithuanian Aviators in Pszczelnik (Myślibórz municipality) commemorates the crash of the “Lituanica” aircraft of 17 July 1933. In the nearby forest the Lithuanian pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas were killed; they had taken off from New York and flown across the Atlantic without a stopover. The flight was to end in Kaunas, 650 km away.
The museum is housed in a Samogitian hut brought in 1989 from the Museum of Folk Architecture in Rumszyszki in Lithuania. Not far away stand monuments: one unveiled on 17 July 1936 in the shape of the Cross of Vytautas the Great (by V. Landsbergis-Žemkalnis), a wooden post in the form of a cross and a granite obelisk with an inscription in four languages. After the war the place was forgotten and vandalised, and in 1983 the monument was restored.
In 2008 (the 75th anniversary) and in 2023 (the 90th anniversary) ceremonies took place here with the presidents of Poland and Lithuania. The site calls for a quiet and attentive visit.
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