15. Creative industries incubator Culture Factory / former Klaipėda Tobacco Factory

About

The builder and first owner of the Klaipėda Tobacco Factory was Leib Werblowsky. The company operated successfully from 1925 to 1939. After the Second World War, a POW camp was established on the site, where until 1954 around 7,000 prisoners of various nationalities were held. After the camp’s closure, the Tobacco Factory reopened as a state-owned enterprise. After Lithuania’s independence was restored, the company was privatised by Philip Morris Lietuva. When production was relocated outside the city centre in 1997, Klaipėda City Municipality acquired the buildings in 2001 for a symbolic 1 litas. Following a reconstruction in 2014, the site was reborn as the Culture Factory.

The conversion of the site and the reconstruction of the building was carried out by a team of architects: Ramunė Staševičiūtė, Monika Knipienė, Dina Timonina, Gerda Antanaitytė and others. Although the former tobacco factory buildings are not listed in the Register of Cultural Property, they lie within the protected area of the Old Town. To maintain a connection with the historic city fabric, only the old five-storey building was preserved. A new two-storey structure was added, housing a cinema and conference halls. Many original industrial details have been retained, while the interior embraces an urban, minimalist, and contemporary style, offering numerous functional spaces.