The Alley of Love and the ensemble of roofed poles

The wide promenade, referred to as the Alley of Love, is winding along the left bank of Jūra River for nearly a kilometre. It was built and given the romantic title back in 1934-1936. Quite a lot of the works of building the alley, drying, widening of the trail and tree planting was done by the youth: pupils, members of the Young Lithuania and Pavasaris Lithuanian Catholic Youth organisations. The Alley of Love became a unique corner of nature unlike anything in Lithuania. The alley used to open to wonderful views of Jūra River below and its slopes. There were also benches and tables. The path along Jūra became a popular place for walks, immortalised in numerous poems and memories. However, eventually the territory, so neat during the inter war period, was abandoned and renovated only recently.
The new and beautiful page in the history of the Alley of Love was inserted by folk artists of Tauragė region. Thanks to them the embankment of Jūra, Vymer (Wiemer) Hill and its foot were decorated with oak sculptures. 1976 marked the opening of the roofed pole ensemble, called Victory. Work. Peace (the title was a tribute to the ideology of the time). This was the third piece of folk art of such scale in Lithuania. What made it different from others was that the sculpture ensemble of Tauragė was created only by folk artists from Tauragė. They decorated the roofed poles with traditional Lithuanian folk ornaments, using the polychrome technique (painting) for décor.
During the plein-air, which took place in 1979, the folk artists decorated the embankment of Jūra River and the Summer Stage with wooden sculptures, based on faery tales. It hosts song festivals, various concerts and events. During the years of the national revival movement (1988-1989) it hosted the concerts of the Roko Maršas Per Lietuvą festival (the festival raised the Lithuanian flag for the first time in Tauragė) and meetings, organised by the Reform Movement of Lithuania (Lth. Sąjūdis).
Unfortunately, time and the natural forces haven’t been kind to the wooden sculptures – some of them are decaying and falling down. During the Soviet years the ensemble was an important local monument of art, but currently it has already been taken out of the register of the Lithuanian Cultural Heritage.
In 2014, municipal and European Union structural funds were used to rebuild Jūra quay and build a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the river. However, the Jūra quay and the Alley of Love require more reconstruction works to repair the damage, caused by landslides and avalanches.

Compiled in 2018