Klaipėda Marriage Palace – Micro-histories of the City Architecture, 2024
lecture
M Ieva Simonaitytė Public Library, H. Manto g. 25
2024-09-28
16.30-17.00
In many Lithuanian cities, the marriage registry offices (“palaces”) were built during the Soviet era. They were characterised by their individual design, splendour, fusion of arts, and distinctive, newly created ceremonial traditions. The Klaipėda Civil Registry Office, built in 1979-1980 to a design by architect Ramūnas Kraniauskas, is distinctive for its original architecture, typical of late modernism and brutalism. The austere façades conceal a rich interior, with luxurious materials, uniquely designed furniture, chandeliers, sculptures, tapestries, stained-glass windows, and other works of art created by prominent artists of that time. Today, the building raises questions not only of architectural value. By delving into the micro-histories of architectural heritage, the lecture will seek to reveal several perspectives of reading the palace, interpreting the building not only as a site of a new secular ritual, but also as a space for the transfer of vernacular traditions to the city.
Marija Drėmaitė
Klaipeda Marriage Palace project drawing, archit. Ramūnas Kraniauskas,
in: Construction and Architecture, 1978, No. 9, p. 20.
Marija Drėmaitė is a cultural and architectural historian, author, exhibition curator, professor at the Faculty of History, Vilnius University. Her research focuses on the architecture, environment and legacy of modernity.
Organiser: Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre.
Funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Klaipėda City Municipality.