Shelter for old craftsmen

The former shelter for old craftsmen stands at the beginning of S. Nėries Street. The current S. Nėries Street got its name during the Soviet era, but until the Second World War it was called Station Street (German: Bahnhofstraße). It was planned around 1875, when the railway reached Klaipėda. At the end of the street the railway station building was built in 1881. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Royal Teachers’ Seminary, a complex of narrow-gauge railway buildings, as well as shelters for old artisans and a boarding house for women, financed by wealthy townspeople, were built on this street.

According to Klaipėda historian Jonas Tatoris, in 1904 from the legacy of the merchants Wilhelm and Heinrich Pietsch, the city magistrate built a shelter for old craftsmen on the current S. Nėries Street (No. 2). It is a two-story rectangular building with two entrances from the side of S. Nėries street and through tambours from the yard. The rooms are communicating, oriented to the east and west, the layout of the rooms on both floors is similar. Its facades combine red brick masonry with plastered planes and concrete details. In this building, precast concrete elements (cornice, lintels, etc.) were used for the first time in the city. The building is decorated with counter-relief carved ornaments on the wall, metal anchors with a complex plant pattern, and a flag holder. Light concrete lintels, windowsills and other details make the main façade a bit scratchy.

Many shelters of various purposes, homes for homeless children, shelters not only for the poor, but also for the well-to-do operated in Memel (present-day Klaipėda) at various times. In city shelters, Lithuanians and Germans were usually accommodated separately. Probably, the oldest known shelter was opened here in 1715.

In 1910-1912 a three-story brick building with a basement for women’s boarding house was built next to the craftsmens’ shelter (4 S. Nėries St.). After World War II, the KGB was located in the building of the women’s boarding house. Cells were installed in the basements of the building, where interrogations and tortures took place. It is said that in these cells from 1945-1954 more than 8 thousand people were imprisoned. Now both buildings are used as administrative premises of Klaipėda territorial customs.  At 4 S. Nėries St. there is an Exposition of Resistance and Exile.