More than 100,000 people visited a museum dedicated to the history of Lithuania’s Jewish community during its first year of operation, the museum said.

The Lost Shtetl museum in Šeduva, in central Lithuania’s Radviliškis district, tells the story of the town’s Jewish community before the Holocaust, including its people, traditions, culture, everyday life and tragic fate.

“During its first year, the museum has become a place where people come not only to learn about the history of Lithuanian Jews, but also to experience it personally, through the stories of specific people, families and details of everyday life,” museum director Jonas Dovydaitis said in a statement.

“More than 100,000 visitors show us that this memory is important and needed today,” he said.

The museum was built and equipped with donated funds. Most of its visitors came from Israel, the United States, South Africa, Poland, Latvia, Finland, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

Admission to the museum is free and will remain free during its second year of operation, according to the statement.

The museum’s project has received several international architecture and design honours. It won an iF Design Award and was included among the museums selected for the prestigious Prix Versailles competition, which recognises notable architecture around the world. It is also a finalist for Finland’s Finlandia Prize for Architecture.

In Lithuania, the project was named the country’s best recreational architecture work in a competition organised by the Lithuanian Architects Association. It was also named Lithuania’s most successful tourism project of 2025 in the Tourism Successes awards.

Construction of the museum began in 2018, and it opened in September 2025.

The project was initiated and established by YouthAid Foundation, a philanthropic organisation registered in Switzerland.