8. Hotel "Šaulys"

About

In 1999, in the centre of Šiauliai, on Vasario 16-osios Street, on the site of three former buildings, a hotel with innovative architecture was erected, uniting buildings from several different eras into a coherent composition. Architect Kajetonas Jurėnas incorporated the new building into the existing street layout, next to two preserved historic buildings. One of them was temporarily the seat of the city council in interwar Šiauliai, and later it was converted into apartments.

The façade of the new hotel is dominated by triangular metal structures tapering upwards, and a wide entrance staircase. Inside the building, one steps into an atrium, reminiscent of an ancient Roman courtyard, where the hotel reception is located. The hotel’s impressive atrium is spacious and bright and connects all three floors of the building. This is also where the traffic flows of people intersect: the way to the hotel rooms, the winter garden-café, and the restaurant. The atrium and the dominant combination of white and crimson in the interior betray the aesthetics of postmodernism. And looking through the unexpectedly arranged glass planes and from the roof of the building, one can feel a connection with important landmarks of the city: the water tower and the Šiauliai Cathedral.