Žemaitija

Žemaitija National Park was established in 1991 in north-western Lithuania, in the historic region of Samogitia, and protects some 217 km².

Its core is Lake Plateliai, the largest in the region, glacial in origin, with seven islands and a deeply indented shore, surrounded by spruce and broadleaf woods on rolling moraine relief. The park also includes peat bogs, meadows and a traditional farmed landscape with villages of Samogitian wooden architecture.

Its most unexpected feature is military: beneath the forest, near Plokštinė, the Soviet Union's first underground ballistic missile base is preserved, built in secret between 1960 and 1962 by soldiers who dug the silos by hand. It held R-12 missiles aimed at western Europe and remained operational until 1978. Today it is a Cold War museum inside the national park, an uncommon case of twentieth-century military heritage integrated into a protected natural area. Samogitia also preserves a strongly marked cultural and linguistic identity of its own.