Arka () is a monument in

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. Unveiled on 8 August 2003, it commemorates the 85-year anniversary of the Act of Tilsit and the 80-year anniversary of the

Klaipėda Revolt The Klaipėda Revolt took place in January 1923 in the Klaipėda Region (also known as the Memel Territory or ). The region, located north of the Neman River, was detached from East Prussia, German Empire by the Treaty of Versailles and became a ...

. The monument weighs 150

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s and reaches in height. The smaller red column is made from red

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and symbolizes

Lithuania Minor Lithuania Minor (; ; ) or Prussian Lithuania (; ; ) is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is a historical region of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians (or Lietuvininkai) lived, now located in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Obla ...

and its cultural heritage, while the larger gray column and arch symbolize

Lithuania proper Lithuania proper refers to a region that existed within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where the Lithuanian language was spoken. The primary meaning is identical to the Duchy of Lithuania, a land around which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania evolved. T ...

. The gray arch on top looks like it has been broken off and stands for the

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast () is the westernmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is a Enclave and exclave, semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the Baltic region of Prussia (region), Prussia, surrounded by Pola ...

, currently part of

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Words by writer

Ieva Simonaitytė Ieva Simonaitytė or Ewa Simoneit (23 January 1897 – 27 August 1978) was a Lithuanian writer. She represented the culture of Lithuania Minor and Klaipėda Region, territories of German East Prussia with historically large, but dwindling, Lithuan ...

are carved into the monument: "Esame viena tauta, viena žemė, viena Lietuva" (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

: We are one nation, one land, one Lithuania). The monument was created by sculptor , architect Richard Krištapavičius, and engineer Tautvydas Tubys.

References

{{Commonscat, Arka (Klaipėda) Buildings and structures in Klaipėda 2003 establishments in Lithuania Monuments and memorials in Lithuania