[ Sept.2014 ] There is an old town in Klaipeda in Lithuania where there are rows of mid 18th century houses.
The stones on the pavement are so uneven that it was difficult to walk there.
The centre of this town is Theatre Square.
The statue of this photo is Ann, standing in the centre of the square.
A poet called Simon Dach who was born in Klaipeda in the 17th century met Ann and fell in love at first sight.
But she already had a fiance, so it was a hopeless love.
He wrote a poem dedicated to her called “Ann from Tharau” .
Apparently this poem is still popular among German speaking people.
In 1912, a sculptor from Berlin made this statue but interestingly this statue disappeared during the WW2.
Nobody knows who stole it, but in the leaflet we got locally said ” It could be a member of Nazis who thought that the statue was irreverent showing her back to HItler who orated at the theatre which is behind her, or it could be a member of Soviet army who plundered just about everything”.
This English leaflet “Klaipeda in your poket” was very interesting, there were a lot of ironic comments here and there.
Anyway, because of this, the statue we saw was the one they reconstructed in 1990.
The Drama Theatre behind the statue was originally built in 1857 and at the moment it is under renovation.
Hitler declared to incorporate Klaipeda (then Memmelburg) into Germany in 1939.
In the Theatre Square, a small market was on and they were selling their famous ambers and other crafts.
