Red brick Klaipėda
Klaipėda (formerly Memel) is one of the oldest cities in the territory of the present-day Lithuania according to the date of its foundation, but the oldest brick buildings (except for the castle fortifications) in Klaipėda city date back only to the 16th century. In order to ensure the security of the castle, a ban on building brick buildings was in force in Klaipėda until the end of the 16th century. Due to the ban, as well as due to the characteristics of the soil, until the middle of the 19th century the half-timbered architectural style dominated in Memel. The face of the city changed fundamentally after the great city fire in 1854, when the entire old city and part of the suburbs burned down. In 1855 in the construction police regulations, there is a requirement to build only brick houses and warehouses. In the second half of the 19th century, new public purpose buildings, financed from the city and the state budgets, as well as private red brick masonry buildings were rapidly rising in the city.
There is a lot of clay in the surroundings of Klaipėda, so it has been used for construction since long ago: beaten clay floor, filling of the gaps in the half-timbered frame with a mixture of clay and straw, and later dried and fired bricks were used. Bricks were produced in the brickyards of Klaipėda and surrounding estates, and were also brought from Holland, Germany, and Sweden. In the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries, red, yellow and clinker bricks were used. The size of the bricks is different, because only in 1867 In Prussia, a uniform brick size (25x12x6.5) was established.
Route distance: 8.2 km
Duration of the route on foot: 2-3 hours. (Visits to museums and other attractions are not included in the route time).
Duration of the route by bicycle: 1-1.5 hours. (Visits to museums and other attractions are not included in the route time).