Nida, Lithuania

Nida is a resort town in Lithuania. Located on the Curonian Spit between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, it is the westernmost point of Lithuania and the Baltic states, close to the border with the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave.

Nida is the location of a fisherman's ethnographic homestead built in 1927 and was restored in 1973 as a symbol of the old way of life of the local fishermen.

Since ancient times, the fishermen of the Curonian Lagoon had unique sailing boats crafted to handle the waves of the Curonian Lagoon. These vessels were buoyant, shallow draught boats constructed of oak boards and called Kurenai, bradinine, or venterine, depending on the types of nets they used.

From a distance, all these boats looked alike. As each village controlled its own fishing areas, a system of identification through uniquely shaped weathercocks at the top of each mast was developed. The earliest record of this system dates from 1844, but the folk art seems much older.

Each weathercock had to be of a minimum size and decorated in colors and with shapes that would clearly denote the village from which it had come. The creation of weathercocks developed into a folk art form with symbols from the lives of the fishermen and their villages.Read more