Location: 3.7 km from Pervalka town centre

For a heart-wrenching tragedy of a village buried in the relentless Curonian sand, head to the Hill of Karvaičiai at the north edge of the nature reserve of Karvaičiai, between Preila and Pervalka settlements.

At the height of 59.4 m the hill location was once a site of Karvaičiai village. The residents, who were mainly fishermen and farmers, unsuccessfully tried to escape the sand to multiple locations around the area. When the families would abandon their homes and move to a new location with all their possessions, the sand would inevitably catch up. The villagers lost all hope to salvage their village when the church of Karvaičiai was buried under the sand. In 1797 the remaining residents moved to neighbouring settlements of Juodrkantė, Nida and Nagliai (Agila).

The lost village of Karvaičiai was home of  Liudvikas Rėza (1776–1840), a prominent Lithuanian folklore and literature publisher and poet. A professor at the University of Königsberg in East Prussia, Rėza published the iconic piece of Lithuanian literature, the first edition of the poem “Metai” (The Seasons), 1818, by the Lithuanian classic writer Kristijonas Donelaitis, and many more influential Lithuanian literature works.