Lithuania leads the development of the AIS Route in the Baltic Region

A participatory and collaborative process strengthens Lithuania's role as a regional reference for the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe dedicated to materia medica

Lithuania as the Baltic hub of the AIS Route

Since the Aromas Itinerarium Salutis – The European Route of Historic Pharmacies and Medicinal Gardens was certified by the Council of Europe in 2024, Lithuania has established itself as a strategic node in the Baltic area. The country has enthusiastically embraced the cultural and participatory approach of the Route, which promotes dialogue between science, memory, and the environment through the enhancement of materia medica. The first official memberships — the Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy and the Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas — marked the start of a conscious integration process, strengthened by numerous field actions and a long-term vision shared by academic, museum, and professional institutions.

AIS Mission, academic cooperation, and cultural governance

In April 2025, a delegation from AIS led by Director María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual and Executive Secretary Simona Tardi carried out a mission in Lithuania coordinated by Prof. habil. Ona Ragažinskienė, head of the Scientific Sector on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) of the Botanical Garden at Vytautas Magnus University and a member of the AIS Scientific Committee.

The visit included meetings with the Department of Cultural Heritage - Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, attended by Director Vidmantas Bezaras and Dr. Alfredas Jomantas, national representative to the EPA – Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe. Official talks followed with the Rector of Vytautas Magnus University, academic Prof. habil. Dr. Juozas Augutis, Vice-Rector for Development Dr. Vilma Bijeikienė, Director of the Institute of Natural and Technological Sciences Prof. habil. Dr. Algimantas Paulauskas, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Prof. Dr. Saulius Mickevičius, and Director of the Botanical Garden Dr. Nerijus Jurkonis, alongside Prof. Ragažinskienė. During the mission, AIS representatives also met with the Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU), Dr. Tauras Antanas Mekas, pharmacist and historian Zenona Šimaitienė, and museum staff.

The BaltPharm Forum and the interdisciplinary vision of materia medica

A key event was the BaltPharm Forum 2025, held in Palanga on 4–6 April 2025 and promoted by the Lithuanian Pharmaceutical Association. The event, which gathered around 200 participants, highlighted the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary and intercultural approach promoted by the Route, addressing topics such as the sustainability of herbal preparations, the safeguarding of historic pharmacies, and the role of health education in transmitting ethnobotanical heritage.

Opening remarks by Prof. Ragažinskienė, Director Vázquez de Ágredos, and Secretary Tardi emphasized Lithuania's growing role within the Route as a territory capable of integrating scientific expertise, museum experience, and educational practices in the promotion of heritage linked to materia medica, in line with the objectives of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes Programme.

An expanding cultural ecosystem: places, actors, and new forms of cooperation

The AIS delegation’s mission in Lithuania (2–6 April 2025) confirmed the vibrancy and diversity of actors involved in developing the Route in the Baltic context. The site visits included some of the country’s most emblematic pharmaceutical and botanical heritage members of AIS: the Museum of the History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy, the Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas), and two nationally relevant historic pharmacies — Širdažolė (Vilnius) and Valerijonas (Šiauliai) — which preserve a living memory of Lithuanian materia medica.

Other sites visited included candidate members and potential partners, such as UAB Švenčionių vaistažolės (Švenčionys), currently an AIS candidate member for its active role in the production of herbal preparations and promotion of materia medica; Entafarma’s Pharmacy Museum (Širvintos), whose developing project was presented by Dr. Tautvydas Endriukaitis; and the Viekšniai Pharmacy Museum (Viekšniai), the only example in Lithuania of a rural pharmacy turned into a museum, visited with a guided tour by museologist Jūratė Žulpaitė. Finally, two other significant historic pharmacies were visited: the Gintarinė historic pharmacy (Palanga), still operating today and preserving its original architecture and furnishings, and the “Vilties” historic pharmacy (Kaunas), which in 2025 celebrates the centenary of its foundation. It houses a mural by painter Antanas Chmieliauskas—a valuable visual source that highlights how contemporary art can serve as an educational canvas to narrate materia medica stories that connect Europe and the world.

Shared vision and international cooperation

In addition to institutional and scientific meetings, significant cultural activities were held to raise awareness and share heritage. On 3 April, at the LSMU Museum in Kaunas, the exhibition Materia Medica. Vaistingosios medžiagos (Materia medica. Medicinal Substances) was inaugurated, in collaboration with the VMU Botanical Garden. The exhibition offered an interdisciplinary narrative of materia medica through artistic installations, archival documents, and botanical specimens, aiming to raise public awareness of the historical and scientific value of European pharmaceutical heritage.

The initiative was part of a broader calendar of events that included AIS participation in the 31st Conference “Human and Nature Safety” (Vytautas Magnus University, 7–9 May 2025), focused on the relationship between health, environment, and culture, and the XXVII International Scientific-Practical Conference “Pharmacy News 2025”, as part of the annual Pharmacy Days summer event (28–29 June 2025). This event gathered over 100 representatives from 33 organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, and Ukraine and celebrated the recognition of the two historic pharmacies as AIS members.

As a result of one year of synergistic work between scientific, cultural, and institutional actors, the AIS National Working Group for Lithuania was established—a coordinating structure designed to ensure active and organized participation of the national network in the Route’s activities. The group is coordinated by Prof. habil. Dr. Ona Ragažinskienė, Vytautas Magnus University, AIS Scientific Committee member, and includes: Dr. Elmantas Pocevičius, General Director of UAB Švenčionių vaistažolės; Zenona Šimaitienė, Museum of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy – LSMU; Almyra Girdenienė, Director of Valerijonas Pharmacy; Birutė Michelkevičienė, Director of Širdažolė Pharmacy; and Alfredas Jomantas, member of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP), and Head of International Relations and Cultural Heritage Dissemination at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

The participation of Alfredas Jomantas, also as Lithuania’s national representative to the EPA, confirms the institutional recognition of a bottom-up process rooted in local communities and expertise that aligns with the objectives of the Cultural Routes Programme.

In this context, Prof. Ragažinskienė’s participation in the Baltic-Nordic Cultural Routes Seminar on 16 June 2025, where she represented Lithuania’s AIS network activities as a good practice example for Cultural Routes in the Baltic and Nordic regions, was particularly significant.

Photo credits: Ph. Jonas Petronis