Reconstructed 18th century monuments are being returned to the public of the port city

Reconstructed 18th century monuments are being returned to the public of the port city.

 

The first hotels and yacht clubs to open at Jūros Vartai

 

The new face of the Klaipėda Ship Repair Plant is becoming apparent and the first tenants are moving in. A restaurant, a marine supplies store, and a ship service center will open here in early July, and a three-star hotel, a marine supplies store, and a ship service center will open in the fall.

 

The restaurant, hotel and ship service center will be located in the historical buildings currently being reconstructed by the consortium “Jūros vartai” of the companies “Eika” and “Achema” – the future entertainment and leisure zone of the port city, which will return its historical part to the city.

 

The value of the ongoing reconstruction project of three buildings is more than 13 million litas. It is planned that the total cost of the implementation of the “Sea Gate” project will exceed 750 million litas.

 

The reconstructed buildings in the “Sea Gate” territory are being completed – a rice mill, a ferryman’s house and a yacht club – historical monuments of the 18th century, built during the heyday of Klaipėda as an important port and maritime trade point. One of the most attractive and unique coastal areas in the entire Baltic region, “Sea Gate” is a place in the center of Klaipėda, connecting to the port. It became open and freely accessible to the public only in the spring of 2005. Now, infrastructure for recreation, entertainment and tourism is being created in this space.

 

A three-star hotel is being built in the rice mill and ferryman’s house, belonging to the company “Baltijos Dorė”, which manages the “Navalis” hotel in Klaipėda. It is planned to have 46 rooms that will be able to accommodate about 90 guests at a time, two restaurants with approximately 100 seats, and two conference halls with a total of 160 seats.

 

A recreational boat service center will be located in the yacht club. The wooden 4-story building will house showers, a sauna, a laundry room, and a recreational boat port office. It is also planned to install a marine goods store, a restaurant-pizzeria, and offices in the attic floors.

 

“During the Soviet era, these buildings were either dilapidated or completely abandoned, so bringing these historical monuments to life was the first important task of “Jūros vartai”, says Martynas Žibūda, head of the commercial premises department of the project developer, “Eika”.

 

The authors of the project of the reconstructed buildings are architects Snieguolė Stripinienė, Saulius Stripinis and Elvyra Kaltanaitė. According to S. Stripinienė, the architects, based on historical material, sought to restore the former appearance of the embankment with its characteristic half-timbered elements. “The buildings were built at different times. At the turn of the century, they changed their form several times, so we had a difficult task to preserve their historical features while creating mutual harmony,” says one of the authors of the project.

 

An impressive six-story building typical of old Klaipėda architecture, the Rice Mill, was destroyed after World War II. The remaining one-story office housed the port administration. The historic house was rebuilt according to photographs taken at the beginning of the last century, maintaining the late 19th century half-timbered style.

 

The second reconstructed building – the ferryman’s house – was recorded on the map of Klaipėda Castle in the 17th century. The ferryman lived in it and the so-called Log Service (collection of taxes for using the ferry) operated. Later, the ferryman’s house was expanded into a larger one-story building with an attic. This was rebuilt into a luxurious classicist-style building at the beginning of the 19th century, with various extensions and staircases attached to it. The ferryman’s house is distinguished by its eclectic architecture: a classic facade is visible from Žvejų Street, and from the river side – with half-timbered elements. Based on surviving photographs from the early 20th century, the architects restored the forms of the ferryman’s house and after restoration this building is reborn in its authentic form.

 

During the restoration of the third building – the yacht club – some of the century-old wooden structures were preserved. After the great fire that devastated Klaipėda in 1854, this warehouse saved the port, as maritime trade grew even more. The shape of the building remained unchanged after the reconstruction: only the facade details glued in during the Soviet era were adjusted and a 150 sq. m terrace for an outdoor cafe was installed.

 

Half-timbered houses are a classic type of construction for low-rise buildings in Western Europe, which can be considered a prototype of today’s frame houses. They consist of a frame formed from horizontal and vertical elements and pillars and wooden beams. The gaps in the walls were filled with stones, bricks, fibers, clay, wooden blocks and even household waste. Half-timbered houses divide the facade into panels of different shapes and give the building a unique appearance. The reason for the popularity of half-timbered houses is simple – masonry required a solid base and deep foundations, which was expensive in low-lying swampy areas. Therefore, frame buildings became popular due to the low weight of the structures and a more attractive price.