About the activity
The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania declared 2023 the Year of the Klaipėda Region, marking the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the Klaipėda Region into the Republic of Lithuania, a date important to the whole of Lithuania. On this occasion, Klaipėda University researchers Vygantas Vareikis and Vytautas Jokubauskas prepared a tourist route through the sites of the 1923 uprising: “Klaipėda 1923”.
The Second World War and the radical decisions of the Soviet authorities regarding the “German heritage” destroyed old Klaipėda: where at the beginning of the 20th century there were marshes, farmland, meadows, homesteads and manor sites, today there are residential neighbourhoods, shopping centres and industrial enterprises. The old manors near which clashes took place in January 1923 (Gedminai, Sendvaris, Rumpiškė) have disappeared, and the Smeltė quarter has changed. Today it is not easy to find places connected with the Klaipėda operation, but the surviving collections of documents, maps and participants’ testimonies make it possible to reconstruct the events of January 1923 and offer specific tourist routes. We invite you to try them and learn more about the events that changed the history of the Klaipėda Region and the whole of Lithuania. An interactive map on the Google Maps platform will help you on your way: here you will find 2 routes, a longer and a shorter one, with sites, short descriptions and historical archive photos. You can start the tour at any point on the route.
*Please note that you can plan the route yourself as you wish, regardless of the order. The sites listed in order are only a recommendation of the most convenient way to try these routes.
*Clicking on the name of a site will take you to the Google Maps platform with the location showing how to find the place.