Klaipėda Old Town

Klaipėda was Memel for most of its history, the northernmost city of East Prussia, and its old town looks it: a regular grid of streets south of the Danė river lined with half-timbered warehouses and merchant houses, quite unlike the organic medieval plan of Vilnius. Theatre Square is the centre, with the theatre building and the Ännchen von Tharau fountain, a reconstruction of a monument to the poet Simon Dach. Around it are the surviving fachwerk warehouses, some converted, the old market, and the castle site with a museum in the surviving bastion. Across the river the port and the ferry to the Curonian Spit dominate. The Sea Museum sits out on the spit at Smiltynė.

What you actually see

• Half-timbered warehouses - fachwerk buildings through the grid streets.
• Theatre Square - the centre with its theatre and fountain.
• The castle museum - displays in the surviving bastion earthworks.
• The working port - the harbour and spit ferry across the river.

When to go

May to September, when the city is at its liveliest and the spit ferry runs frequently; the Sea Festival in July fills the old town. Winter is grey but the old town keeps its character.

Honest expectations

The old town is small and much was lost in the twentieth century, so the surviving fabric is patchy among later building. Museums close on Mondays. The port dominates the setting. Summer brings cruise passengers in numbers.

Nearby

The Curonian Spit is across the water; Palanga lies north.