L. Rėza Sculpture near Pervalka

Next to Pervalka, on the Skirpstas dune, more than 50 metres high, stands a wooden sculpture in memory of Liudvikas Rėza (Ludwig Rhesa) – professor of theology at Königsberg University, cultural figure, Bible publisher, folklorist, poet, and publisher of K. Donelaitis's poem "The Seasons" and his fables. This wooden sculpture to the famous early 19th-century man of learning was erected in 1975, when the 200th anniversary of Rėza's birth was marked. Liudvikas Rėza was born on the Curonian Spit into the family of a coast guard, so the author of the monument, folk artist and honorary citizen of Neringa Eduardas Jonušas, chose to honour the memory of the folklorist, poet and cultural figure in a particularly symbolic way. The sculpture of Liudvikas Rėza looks towards his birthplace – the site of the village of Karvaičiai, buried by sand in the 1790s. The memory of the village is also honoured by lines carved into the oak from Rėza's 1809 poem "The Sunken Village": Dear traveller, stop by these sorrowful ruins! Only a few years ago gardens bloomed here by the cottages, and the little village stretched from the forest to the lagoon shore. But what do you see today? Only sand carried by the wind. Ah, many a tear of pain rolls down a cheek here. Where is the quiet little village, where are the blooming gardens? A lonely pine sways, and a poor hut looms, leaning against the slope, crooked and mossy. Only these two remain – a sad trace of what was here. There, beyond the forest, the dunes rose like a giant mountain and looked out over the tall trees to the wide sea. The winds carried sand down the slope past the treetops, and the forest sank in the sand – the shelter of the poor village. No embankment could have stopped the advancing dunes!… Climbing the fifty-metre Skirpstas dune, travellers can not only see the monument dedicated to one of the cultural figures who did most for the Lagoon region, but also feel the flow of sand and time. Looking towards the vanished village and reading the lines carved on the sculpture, you will be carried back to the days when "gardens bloomed by the cottages".