Šilutė is a small city in Western Lithuania with a layered history. From the 18th century until the end of World War I, it was part of Prussia, and most of its residents spoke Lithuanian. Today, traces of that past remain, with its German and Lutheran heritage still pronounced compared to the otherwise largely Catholic Lithuania.
Some of the city’s heritage lives on, albeit in miniature, beneath passersby’s feet. In its main street, known as Lietuvininkų (a name for the Lithuanian-speaking local community in an otherwise German culture), 20 houses feature small glass tiles embedded in the pavement in front of their facades. Beneath the glass, miniature dioramas recreate scenes from daily life that took place in the city’s historic buildings.
Visitors will find a dentist’s office, a railway station, a bicycle shop, a former butter production facility, a boutique sewing room, and… a coffin maker’s shop. All the recreated scenes date back to the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
The tiles are easy to miss if you don’t look down, so be sure to take a moment to appreciate not only the charming local architecture of Šilutė but also these small wonders that enable visitors to glimpse into the city’s past.
The idea behind Šilutės sekretai was conceived by the local arts school, created by adults and children alike, and implemented with the support of local businesses. What started as a small-scale project became an inseparable part of the town’s cultural heritage.
