Tossed onto shores by the Baltic Sea, amber has been coveted, traded, and used as jewelry for thousands of years, making its way from Northern Europe to the Black Sea by way of a trade route called the Amber Road.Baltic amber, called succinite, is the fossilized resin of trees that grew millions of years ago. When trees were injured by animals or weather, they released their sap to heal the wound. As climate changed and natural processes such as heat, pressure, and those of microorganisms took effect, fossilization occurred.

Baltic amber comes in various colors. Yellow amber, often called lemon amber or butter amber, is typical, as is honey amber—that warm-colored amber between yellow and red. But green amber and cherry or red amber are also available in this region. Amber can be translucent or opaque, and treating amber allows artisans to bring out the natural beauty of the material.

Like the Silk Road that allowed silk to be transported from China to the West, the Amber Road was a route stretching from the Baltic Sea to Southeastern Europe for the trade of amber. Lithuania and Poland may have been the start of this route, which was used from as early as the 16th century BC and into Roman times. A modern Amber Road, developed for tourists, took inspiration from the historic iteration from this route and includes cities along the Baltic Sea coast.

THE STORY

When a lithuanian explains about the origin of Baltic Amber they tell a legend of an unhappy love between queen Jurate and fisherman Kastytis.

According to an ancient Lithuanian legend, Jurate, the beautiful sea-goddess, who lived in a palace built of amber at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, fell in love with a fisherman Kastytis. When thunder-god Perkunas, the most powerful of the Lithuanian gods, found out about it, he became very angry at Jurate for her love of a mere mortal and in a jealous rage with lightning bolts killed Kastytis and shattered Jurate undersea palace.

Even today, when winds whip up raging storms in the Baltic Sea, one can hear Jurate mournful cries for her beloved Kastytis and, afterwards, one can still find small pieces of Jurate amber palace among the seaweeds washed out on the sandy shores.