Herkaus Manto Street

Gatvės, Klaipėda, Memel, Lietuva

We invite you to take a leisurely stroll along Herkaus Manto Street, to see the numerous buildings, monuments, and memorial plaques, to stop by the ever jovial cafés, and to fully experience the busy street.

Our journey begins at the intersection of H. Manto st. and Liepų st. The history of each remaining building in this area is rather extensive and the structures as well as the remaining photographs of the location indicate that this area was once a very active location. We continue towards Lietuvininkai Square. This street used to be full of stores, cafés, casinos, photo studios, a home for widows, and a brewery. This was also where the Memeler Dampfboot printing house, the Hotel de Russie, which was either an inn, or a hotel, the Sanssouci restaurant with a large garden, which used to be transformed into an ice-skating ring during the winter season, the J. L. Wiener Orphanage and School, Artist A. Brakas’ Furniture Factory, the Klaipėda Region Soap Factory, and the M. Scheurich Sausage Factory could be found. One of the most spectacular structures on this street were the wooden buildings that belonged to the Gerlach merchants. One of them housed the city library (the Stadtbücherei Memel), which is nowadays the Klaipėda County I. Simonaitytė Public Library.

We continue our journey from Lietuvininkai Square towards the military base.

This strip of land was developed in the beginning of the 20th century during the construction of the military base. Back then it was named after Helmuth von Moltke, a Prussian Military General (the street used to be called Montės st. from 1934 until 1939). Art Nouveau style houses were built along the road. The buildings are decorated with fachverk elements, bent roofs, and bay windows. These were the homes of rich businessmen, physicians, bankers, and merchants.

Most of the buildings on Herkaus Manto st. were homes of famous people. The present day Navalis Hotel is the former home of Poet and Fourwinder Salys Šemerys-Šmerauskas. The buildings at 47 and 50 Herkaus Manto st. were where writer and diplomat Ignas Šeinius-Jurkūnas and engineer Ernestas Galvanauskas (respectively) used to live. E. Galvanauskas was a famous Lithuanian politician, the prime minister, the minister of foreign affairs, and the head of the Klaipėda port council during the interwar period. He lived in this building in the 1930s.

The journey ends at the former military complex, which was handed over to Klaipėda University in 1992. We strongly encourage you to find the time to take a walk through the ages and to get acquainted with the area that is laden with historic events and personalities.

The area contains a lot of sculptures, monuments, and renovated buildings.

The distance between Liepų st. and the military base is 1 kilometre.
The route may take approximately an hour to complete.

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