Telšiai - a city on seven hills - the Lithuanian Rome. On one of the hills, named after Vilnius, stands the Žemaitė (formerly Valančius) Gymnasium - perhaps the most striking example of modernism not only in Samogitia but also in Lithuania. The Bauhaus School is characterised by a glass corner illuminating the foyer, a unique solution for the time. The school tower houses an observatory and a meteorological station, and the roof has a modern observation deck.
In the interwar period, after gaining independence, the Catholics demanded the return of the church from the Eastern Orthodox Slavs. The latter returned the church and the Catholics provided money to build a new Orthodox church. In 1935, a new Orthodox church was built on the Malūnai hill, with a 19th-century iconostasis - a three-storey altar.
A woodworking or fine crafts school was built on Žalioji Hill between the wars, and today it is a branch of the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
On the highest Insulos hill stands the old Bernardine Monastery and the Telšiai Cathedral, which was built with the idea in mind that it would be a meeting place for the sejmiks of the Telšiai county and the Samogitian nobility. With the help of Bishop Justinas Staugaitis, a signatory of the Act of Independence, the Bishop’s House and the Curia were built.
On the way from Telšiai towards Laukuva, there is a special symbol of national architecture and suffering - the Chapel of Rainiai. The Bolsheviks at the beginning of the Second World War murdered nearly 80 political prisoners here, and the chapel was demolished during the Soviet era but rebuilt after regaining independence.