Senasis Molėtų plentas: kelionė erdve ir laiku

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Vietos dvasia; Genius loci; Senasis Molėtų plentas.

ENThe paper attempts to reveal the spirit of the old road of Molėtai. The object is examined on the basis of three methodological approaches: heritage updating in tourist sources (travel guides, reference publications, presentations and the like), identification of objects that 'set off the cycle of heritage' (Simon Thurley), and interviews with local residents and travellers. In the process of research, virtual (tourist sources, conversations with travellers) and real (travel by car) trips were taken along the old road of Molėtai, with the aim of seeing and feeling the objects that create the spirit of the place. The analysis of tourist sources shows that at first travellers around the Vilnius region bypassed the old road of Molėtai and preferred different routes; during the Soviet period the tourist potential of the road was not exploited in either nature tourism or cultural tourism aspect. The most recent travel guides offer abundant and miscellaneous information on the heritage objects on both sides of the highway. Travel guides of the Vilnius region, which refer to the heritage objects along the old road of Molėtai, can be divided into three groups: the Lithuanian ones, which reflect Lithuanian nationalist attitude to the heritage of the Vilnius region, the Polish ones, which popularize the Polish part of the heritage, and the neutral ones, which are free of any nationalist undertones.However, not a single author of those travel guides has linked these objects into a journey along the road as a whole, and has not encouraged travellers to take this particular route and experience its spirit of the place. Conversations with local residents predominantly reflect the realities of current life: they are more concerned about the aspect of the present of the highway and its changes, and not about the objects of the past. The scenery along the highway, the pleasure of travelling along it, good maintenance and infrastructure are distinguished as its positive aspects. Local information and signposts to the nearby heritage objects, large numbers of which are described in travel guides, were missed during the car journey along the old road of Molėtai. It is concluded, therefore, that the absence of information eliminates the heritage objects from the feeling of the spirit of the place of the old road of Molėtai, thus considerably impoverishing it. [From the publication]