Nida Elk statue by Saulius Juchnevičius (1), Nida, Lithuania Minor, Lithuania. An elk, which lived in local forests, was a sacral symbol of the Prussian tribes’ idolatry, the symbol of renewal (elks shed their antlers each year), before and some time after an arrival of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in the 13th century. After a conquest by the Teutonic Knights of East Prussia, part of which was Lithuania Minor, the symbol of the elk not disappeared in these territories during German rule, and it still exists as a natural cultural and historical representation of this region