MEDIA
Palanga and Šventoji

Should public baths be abolished and why? Can you take cameras and binoculars to the beach? Should you rescue a drowning creditor? Send your answers by the end of the summer. (Lietuvos pliažas, 1932)

The port of Šventoji has been known since Curonian times. In the past, the town of Šventoji had 6 farms, and the whole seaside towards Palanga belonged to Count Tiškevičius. In 1921, the port of Šventoji was awarded to Lithuania by arbitration. After the loss of Klaipėda, the port of Šventoji became the only exit to the Baltic Sea. In accordance with the plan for a “brick Lithuania”, not only anglers’ houses but also a school and a block of modern villas were built within a couple of years. In 1934, the first Sea Festival was celebrated in Šventoji, two weeks earlier than in Klaipėda. At that time, there were 80 homesteads in Palanga, half of which belonged to peasants and farmers, and the other half to Jews. After Count Mykolas Tiškevičius acquired the area, Palanga changed from an anglers’ village to a resort. Such villas, like Romeo and Juliet, The Eye of the Sea, the Burstein Villa, White Villa, which was also the residence of Antanas Smetona, were built at the time. We will also visit Antanas Mončys House-Museum.

What people say
from the eye and from the heart
Mikelis Balčius,
local ethnographer
For the Curonians, any water that flowed before the sun was sacred. This is how the name Šventoji came about.
Paulius Laurinaitis,
architectural historian
Until 1923, the port of Šventoji was Lithuania’s only exit to the sea. However, there was also Palanga, so plans began to build a port in Palanga.
Sabina Mončys,
daughter of sculptor Antanas Mončys
About her father. He was very loving, he loved people and matter - a tree, a forest. Especially the tree! That is why he worked with wood. It was a material that he loved and respected very much.
We are interested in your opinion.
Share your excitement if you have already in this city