The curonian spit is a unique and vulnerable sandy and wooded егэ

Outstanding Universal Value

Brief synthesis

The Curonian Spit is a unique and vulnerable, sandy and wooded cultural landscape on a coastal spit which features small Curonian lagoon settlements. The Spit was formed by the sea, wind and human activity and continues to be shaped by them. Rich with an abundance of unique natural and cultural features, it has retained its social and cultural importance. Local communities adapted to the changes in the natural environment in order to survive. This interaction between humans and nature shaped the Curonian Spit cultural landscape.

The history of the Curonian Spit is dramatic: 5,000 years ago, a narrow peninsula (98 km in length and 0.4-3.8 km in width), the Great Dune Ridge separating the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon, was formed on moraine islands from sand transported by currents, and later covered by forest. After intensive logging in the 17th and 18th centuries, the dunes began moving towards the Curonian Lagoon, burying the oldest settlements. At the turn of the 19th century, it became evident that human habitation would no longer be possible in the area without immediate action. Dune stabilisation work began, and has continued ever since. By the end of the 19th century, a protective dune ridge was formed along the seashore to prevent inland sand migration, and the Great Dune Ridge was reinforced using trees and brushwood hedges. Currently, forests and sands dominate the Curonian Spit. Urbanised areas (eight small settlements) cover just about 6% of the land.

The most valuable elements and qualities of the Curonian Spit cultural landscape are its unique size and general spatial structure, demonstrating the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature; the characteristic panoramas and the silhouette of the Curonian lagoon; cultural elements including the remains of postal tracks, trade villages from the 10th and 11th centuries, traditional fishermen villages and other archaeological heritage covered by sand; the spatial-planned structure and architecture of ancient fishermen villages turned into resort settlements (ancient wooden fishermen houses, professionally designed buildings of the 19th century, including lighthouses, piers, churches, schools, villas); and elements of marine cultural heritage; natural and human-made elements including the distinctive Great Dune Ridge and individual dunes, relics of ancient parabolic dunes; a human-made protective coastal dune ridge; relics of moraine islands, seacoast and littoral forests and littoral capes; ancient forests, mountain pine forests and other unique sand flora and fauna including a bird migration path; and the social-cultural traditions, spirituality, and the social perception of the area, which reflect the local lifestyle formerly centred on fishermen, artists, scientists, yachtsmen and gliders, travellers and other visitors.

Criterion (v): The Curonian Spit is an outstanding example of a landscape of sand dunes that is under constant threat from natural forces (wind and tide). After disastrous human interventions that menaced its survival, the Spit was reclaimed by massive protection and stabilization works that began in the 19th century and are still continuing to the present day.

 Integrity

The entire area of the Curonian Spit cultural landscape reflects valuable qualities and underlying processes, retains historical functions and specific sustainable land use methods related to the peculiarities of the natural environment, and reflects the unique spiritual bond between humans and nature. The boundaries of the World Heritage property are sufficient to express all the attributes of its Outstanding Universal Value. Some of these attributes, such as the fishermen houses, need careful maintenance. In general, these attributes are particularly sensitive to pressures such as climate change, severe weather events, fire, excessive development and tourism. Because of the continuous evolution and development of the cultural landscape, it is very important to regulate the number of visitors to the property. New developments and other economic activities must be regulated to avoid any irreversible changes that may threaten the Outstanding Universal Value. The most vulnerable elements of the Curonian Spit cultural landscape are the oldest wooden fishermen’s houses, the wooden decor of professionally designed buildings, and the human-made protective coastal dune ridge, which is influenced by the natural coastal processes under the influence of global climate change.

Authenticity

The Curonian Spit showcases high landscape values. It is an example of a special landform subjected to human intervention and natural phenomena such as climatic variations. The former has been both catastrophic, as with the drastic deforestation in the 16th century, and beneficial, as demonstrated in the 19th century with the creation of artificial barriers against further incursions by the sea. The cultural, natural and human-made elements of the Curonian Spit cultural landscape illustrate the most important features of its formation through their shapes, volumes, materials, and functions. The authenticity of the landscape is reflected by the tangible and spiritual values of the different historical periods that shaped its identity.

The vitality, spirituality and special mood of the cultural landscape and its unique characteristics is further highlighted by authentic forms of local intangible heritage. These include the marine cultural heritage; traditional trades, folklore and artistic traditions; the ethnographic elements of the fishermen’s lifestyles; unique methods of protective coast and dune ridge management and forest maintenance; sustainable recreational activities and a cultural leisure tradition dating back to the 19th century.

Protection and management requirements

The Curonian Spit is situated in the Curonian Spit National Park in Lithuania and the Kurshskaya National Park of the Russian Federation. The status of these National Parks guarantees the protection of the cultural landscape. Both National Parks have the common goal of preserving the natural and cultural attributes that express the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. A very important prerequisite for the protection of the Outstanding Universal Value is state land ownership by the National Parks.

The governments of both states are responsible for the conservation of the Curonian Spit: in the Republic of Lithuania through the Ministry of Environment and authorised agencies, and in the Russian Federation through the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The protection of immovable cultural heritage is the responsibility of the cultural Heritage Department under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and the State Service for Protection of cultural Heritage of the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. The Governments have created the National Parks authorities, who play a key role in the conservation of the property, forest and coastal management.

The territory of the Curonian Spit is administered by Neringa and Klaipėda City municipalities of the Republic of Lithuania and by the Federal State corporation National Park Kurshskaja kosa, along with the municipal unit of Kurshskaja kosa of the Zelenogradsk area of the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. The local authorities in the Republic of Lithuania determine the main trends of socio-economic development, manage and plan settlements, and generally take care of the protection and management of the territory by implementing territorial planning documents in the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit. The local community is directly involved in the conservation of the property’s tangible heritage and also carries the region’s intangible heritage.

For the effective management and protection of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value, closer collaboration of all institutions and stakeholders is needed within and between States.

In the Republic of Lithuania, any activity posing a threat to the Outstanding Universal Value of the Curonian Spit is prohibited by the Law on Protected Areas (2001), and Protection Regulation of the Curonian Spit National Park (2002). In the Russian Federation, the relevant laws are the Federal Law of Specially Protected Nature Territories of the Russian Federation (1995) and the Law on Federal State Enterprise (FSBA, 2012), implemented through territorial  planning documents.

Different attributes of the property require different protection regimes and management activities. Therefore, different zones have been established in the National Parks for various specific purposes, such as strict reserves, reserves, recreational, residential and other zones. All these measures are outlined in the territorial planning documents.

The main territorial planning documents in the Republic of Lithuania are the Special Management Plan of the Curonian Spit (a territorial planning document adopted by the government in 2012), and the National Park Borders Plan (adopted by Parliament in 2010). Klaipėda’s municipal General Plan has been in place since 2007, while Neringa’s General Plan was adopted by the municipality in 2012.

The preparation of a single territorial planning document for the management of the area, aiming to ensure the preservation of the property’s Outstanding Universal Value in Lithuania is foreseen. The main territorial planning document in the Russian Federation is the Development Plan for the National Park Kurshskaja Kosa for 2009-2013.

The coordination of actions between the States is necessary to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. Once finalised and agreed upon, an integrated Curonian Spit Management Plan covering the whole property will be implemented in order to ensure the conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value, to improve cooperation between all institutions in both States, and to reach joint agreements on future activities. The preparation of this Management Plan is an essential step in the appropriate management of the property and particular attention should be paid to including a Tourism Management Plan and addressing the other major pressures potentially affecting the property. The implementation of territorial planning documents and the safeguarding of the implementation of existing legislation are high priorities.

Curonian Spit Overview

From the Curonian Spit World Heritage inscription:

The Curonian Spit is a unique and vulnerable, sandy and wooded cultural landscape on a coastal spit which features small Curonian lagoon settlements. The Spit was formed by the sea, wind and human activity and continues to be shaped by them. Rich with an abundance of unique natural and cultural features, it has retained its social and cultural importance. Local communities adapted to the changes in the natural environment in order to survive. This interaction between humans and nature shaped the Curonian Spit cultural landscape.

The Curonian Spit is perhaps the top natural attraction in Lithuania and one of the top attractions in the Baltic Region. I visited the Curonian Spit on a G Adventures tour of the Baltic States.

Most of the information in this article will pertain to visiting the Lithuanian side of the Curonian Spit, however, half of the spit is shared with Russia. The Lithuanian side is much easier for most tourists to visit unless you have gone through the process of getting a Russian visa. This article will deal mostly with the Lithuanian side.

History

Geologically, the spit is approximately 3 million years old. The spit is the remnant of a glacial moraine which terminated in the area. The spit stays in existence by a constant balance of sand deposition and transportation. Similar sand spits and barrier islands can be found around the world.

In mythology, the Curonian Spit was created by a giant named Neringa who was playing on the seashore. There has been evidence of a human presence on the spit for at least 1,000 years and a well-documented history going back to the 13th Century where the spit was the home to the Order of Teutonic Knights.

Fishing was always the most popular industry on the spit as the soil was poor for agriculture. In the 19th Century the spit became the location of an artists colony, especially

Today it is primarily a tourist destination.

What to see / Sights

The Curonian Spit is nothing more than a long sandy peninsula. As such, everything can be visited along a single main road which goes along the length of the spit.

• Beaches There are several public beaches along the length of the spit. There is an enormous difference between the Baltic Sea beaches and the lagoon side beaches. The spit protects the lagoon from the waves, and as such, the water is much calmer and slightly warmer. The Baltic (western) side has much rougher seas and higher winds.
• Bird Watching. There is a large colony of herons and cormorants outside of the village of Juodkrant?. All of the trees in the area are dead due to the bird droppings which have made the soil too acidic. The spit was home to the Rossitten Bird Observatory, which was the first dedicated bird observatory in the world. It operated from 1901 to 1944.
• Hill of Witches. Located in the village of Juodkrante is a collection of almost 100 wood carvings which show stories from Lithuanian folklore. The wooden sculptures show frightening and grotesque images from stories from Lithuania’s pagan past. (Lithuania was one of the last pagan countries in Europe.) The hill is open 24/7.

Visit the Curonian Spit on a day trip from Vilnius.

What to do / Activities

• Biking. The spit is rather flat which makes it a perfect place for biking. Many people will visit the Curonian Spit on cycling tours. If you do not have your own bike, you can rent a bicycle in Nida. They will drop you and your bike off further up the spit and let you ride your bike back to town. There are dedicated bicycle paths the entire length of the spit.
• Kite Surfing. The Baltic side of the spit is one of the best places for kitesurfing and windsurfing in the entire region. While it is a great spot for it, you will probably have to bring your own gear as there aren’t any rental companies on the spit.

Book a private tour of the Curonian Spit.

Photography Tips

The spit is pretty flat so there isn’t much in terms of dramatic landscapes available. Some of the following locations might get some great shots:

• Along the beach. Try to capture kitesurfers in the distance.
• Bicycle and hiking paths. They go through the pine forest on the spit and provide some interesting perspective shots.
• Climb the sand dunes south of Nida. They aren’t incredibly high, but they will give you one of the best vantage points on the entire spit.
• Visit the Witch Hill and focus on the details in the wood carvings. Consider creating black & white photos of the sculptures which bring out the drama in the woodwork.

Where to Eat

Check out Tik Pas Jona in Nida. They specialize in smoked fish. The entire menu for that day will be displayed before dinner and you can pick the fish you want to eat.

Other restaurants in the area will serve local dishes. There are no major chain restaurants anywhere on the Curonian Spit. If you haven’t had it yet, you should try cepelinai, which is a potato dumpling and is the national dish of Lithuania.

As this is near one of the biggest regions for amber production in the world, you might find some places with amber infused vodka. They simply take the bits and pieces of amber which come from preparing stones for jewelry, and they infused it in vodka for several months. The result is an amber colored vodka with a 25 million-year-old, slightly sweet taste!

Operating Hours

The spit is open year-round as people live it on. However, the peak season for tourists is in the summer and many of the establishments which cater to tourists may be closed in the winter.

Where to stay

Hotels

There are no large or chain hotels on the spit. All of the lodging options are smaller hotels and guesthouses. Hotels can fill up during the peak season during the summer months.

Book hotels on the Curonian Spit

How to get there

Airports

The largest international airport would be in Vilnius (VNO), which is several hours away. The Kaunas Airport (KUN) is slightly closer and is serviced by flights from Ryanair. Both have car rentals counters at the airport.

By Car

To get to the spit by car on the Lithuanian side, you have to take a ferry. The ferries operate on a regular basis from the city of Klaipeda, Lithuania. Ferries leave every hour during the day. Fees for foot passengers are 1 Euro, and passenger cars are 12.50 Euro.

Information on the ferry is available online.

Rent cars at the Vilnius Airport

Public Transportation

There are buses which go to Nida from Kaunas and Vilnius. Each of them makes a stop in Klaipeda before going on the ferry.

Cost

Weather

The Baltic Sea tends to moderate temperatures on the Spit. The winters seldom get below freezing and the summers are seldom very hot.

Get current temperates and forecasts for Nida, Lithuania.

Shopping

The signature item to get from the Curonian Spit would be amber. The area along the Baltic Sea is the biggest amber producing area in the world, especially the Russian province of Kaliningrad just south of the Spit. There are several stores that exclusively sell amber. As with other gemstones, prices can be quite expensive depending on size and quality, and in the case of amber, what other creatures are embedded inside it.

You can also buy a small bag of amber chips for about 20 Euro which can be used to infuse drinks such as vodka. The infusion process takes about 3 months, but in the end, you have an amber-colored vodka that is 25 million years old!

Gary has been traveing the world since 2007. His travels have taken him to over 200 countries and territories and 400 UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

He is a 3x Lowell Thomas Award winner and a 3x North American Travel Photographer of the Year.

Другие языки

The sword-shaped Curonian Spit runs from Kaliningrad, Russia to Klaipeda, Lithuania. The peninsula hosts one of Russia’s smallest national parks, boasting a huge bridge for migrating birds, wandering sand dunes and sands.

The windblown sand drops to the ground in even thin lines, peaked like cardiograph readings showing a heartbeat. The heartbeat is so pulsating that it looks like the heart might burst out through the ribs. The Curonian Spit is lined with thousands of these sandy cardiograph streaks, as though recording the heartbeat patterns of the people who live here — flickering every second like tiny lines in the sand.

The sword-shape of Curonian Spit runs from Zelenogradsk in Kaliningrad Region to Klaipeda in Lithuania, dividing the salty brine of the Baltic Sea from the freshwater of the Curonian Bay. The emptiness gives way to pine forest, birch, and meadows swathed in mossy tundra and wetlands the size of a Moscow suburb.

At 25 square miles, the whole national park here is one-sixteenth the size of Russia’s capital: it measures 321 feet in one direction, and between .25 and 2.36 miles in the other. 

For over a thousand years people have been trying to save the Curonian Spit from three principle foes — the water, the wind, and themselves. Ancient Baltic tribes had their pagan worship groves here, and, later, Prussian kings kenneled their hunting packs here.

Then, in the 18th century, most of its area was given over to a royal park called The King’s Woods. This status would later save it from the massive deforestation that occurred on the rest of the Spit.

The deforestation sparked an ecological catastrophe: the sand caused desertification and the formation of “wandering” sand-dunes that gently amble along the peninsula’s coast. Even today this destructive process continues, making the natural eco-system of the peninsula fragile and vulnerable.

Source: Anton Agarkov / Strana.ru

For this reason, the Curonian Spit National Park was set up here in 1987 — one of Russia’s first national parks. People say that if you totaled up all of the materials and labor costs thrown at this project over the years, it would be the most expensive environmental project known in history. 

“I love fishing here. We used to come here for flounders when I was just a kid,” says Vitya, a young red-nosed fisherman. “Back then we didn’t just catch fish, we used to bake crows! Nah, honestly! We’d lay our fishing net out on the ground and bait it with fish. We could catch more than a hundred crows a day.

Then we’d pluck them, chop the heads and legs off and sell them at the market. Of course, the buyers didn’t know they were buying crows! We even made up a special name for them — we called them ‘Prussian Doves!’” 

As the sun goes down on spring evenings, the beating of wings drowns out even the fall of the waves. Hundreds of thousands of birds fly over the peninsula every day. The Curonian Spit is an enormous bridge for birds. The migration routes of more than 150 bird species run past here, as they fly from Northern Europe to the South and to Northern Africa. During the migration period, millions of birds fly the Spit. 

Source: Anton Agarkov / Strana.ru

The Curonian Spit National Park is home to Europe’s oldest (1901) ornithological station, Fringilla, which is located at the Rybachy village (Fisherman’s village). Fringilla is the Latin genus for finches — one of the most common birds in the Curonian Spit. Ornithologists set up the world’s largest bird-nets (50 feet high) at Fringilla during the migration season.

During the peak season, these nets sometimes “harvested” 8,000 birds per hour. All the birds were weighed, inspected, ringed, and then released back into the wild.  

“The Curonian Spit is a special and unique place,” says Anna, a villager at Rybachy village, “but that’s not what brings people here. Visitors come to experience nature — not wild nature and not groomed nature, but more like human nature! For many years the people and the Spit have grown up alongside each other as brother and sister: they may tussle and argue, but eventually they realize that they love each other. No, really — they do.»

«This is where you’ll discover the real nature of humanity. It’s reflected everywhere — in the rocks, the waves, the trees,» she added. «It’s why we came here to live. This is where the sand sings and the forest dances…” 

The pine trees are woven into rings and hearts, convoluted spirals bending down to the ground — a strange natural phenomenon that locals call “the dancing forest.” This patch of hundreds of trees suddenly opens in the middle of the rest of the forest: turn along the path and you will find bizarrely-shaped trees all around you. No one has been able to explain why it happens. People say that the dancing forest follows the movement of the sands.

The “singing sands” are yet another strange local feature. Due to their unusual crystalline forms, the sand particles emit characteristic sounds on contact with the wind — sounds that are nothing like the usual rustle. 

The sand sings under your feet, runs under your heels, bays at the dogs and echoes the lapping waves; its sound is carried far along the Curonian Spit. All you need to do is take a single step to hear it — or just not move at all.

Source: Anton Agarkov / Strana.ru

You can run, or jump, or watch the dunes in silence, and you will still hear the sand everywhere. It forms waves that become some of the biggest sand dunes in the world. “The Heights of Eff” and “The Müller Heights” are the names of dunes here that can grow taller than 195 feet.

“I was born here, and when I grew up I moved to Kaliningrad. Then I came back. There’s nothing for me to do in other countries and cities, as long as I can live here,” says Vladimir, a park worker. “We have everything — the sea, hills, deserts, forests and tundra. And, by the way, a sole fish with eyes leaning on one side isn’t that tasty. But the most important thing is that we have tranquility, which can only be found in nature…”      

The best time to visit the Curonian Spit is from May to November — there are no cars, the sea is calmer, and the pussy-willow blossoms are in bloom along the shores.

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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