Most of Klaipėda's museums are a few minutes' walk from each other, and from Bohema – the Blacksmith's Museum is around the corner, the Castle Museum ten minutes away. They are not huge, which is their charm: in half a day you can go from Teutonic knights to the bombing of 1945, watch a forge, and stand in a courtyard where your own shadow tells the time. The one thing you need to know before you go is which days they are closed.
Best value: the €9 combined ticket for the History Museum, the Blacksmith's Museum and the Castle Museum (€4.50 reduced).
Free days: on the last Sunday of each month the Clock Museum, the Domšaitis Gallery, the Sea Museum and the ship Sūduvis are free.
Watch out: almost every museum is closed on Mondays; from mid-September to mid-June the castle, history and blacksmith museums also close on Sundays.
Late opening: the Clock Museum and the Domšaitis Gallery stay open until 20:00 on Thursdays.
The museums on one map
The first three are in the Old Town, south of the Danė; the clocks, the carillon and the art gallery line Liepų Street on the other side of the river. Times are on foot from the hotel.
Which museums are open today?
Two different organisations run Klaipėda's museums, with different weekly rhythms. Choose your day:
Tuesday to Saturday
Outside the summer season everything is open: the Castle, History and Blacksmith's museums from 10:00 to 18:00, the Clock Museum and the Domšaitis Gallery from 10:00 to 18:00 (on Thursday from 12:00 to 20:00). This is the day for the full programme.
Sunday
From mid-September to mid-June the three museums of the History Museum of Lithuania Minor (castle, history, blacksmith) are closed. The Clock Museum and the Domšaitis Gallery are open from 10:00 to 16:00 – and free on the last Sunday of the month. The Sculpture Park is always open.
Monday
Almost every indoor museum is closed. Spend the day outdoors: the Sculpture Park, the sculpture trail through the Old Town or a trip across the lagoon to the Curonian Spit.
Summer
From mid-June to mid-September the castle, history and blacksmith museums open from Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, and close on Mondays and Tuesdays. The Clock Museum and the Domšaitis Gallery keep the same hours all year.
Klaipėda Castle Museum and Museum 39/45
Klaipėda began here: in 1252 the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order founded its castle, Memelburg, at the mouth of the Danė. Little was left above ground – in the 19th century the last bricks went into Old Town houses – but the museum shows how much survived below. The highlight is “Kurtina”, the archaeological exhibition opened in 2021 inside the restored curtain wall: around 5,000 finds, holograms, sound zones and a 15 × 6 metre projection the museum calls probably the largest in Lithuania. Two more exhibitions sit in the original 16th–18th-century posterns.
Museum 39/45 tells a darker story: the Klaipėda region in the Second World War, the air raids of 1944–1945, the evacuation and the city's new Soviet identity. Allow an hour and a half for the whole castle, and use the free audio guide in English, German, Russian or Lithuanian.
The castle's Great Tower, rebuilt on its original foundations between 2023 and 2025, now rises 49 metres again, with a viewing platform at 30 metres, 156 steps up. It has opened for special occasions such as Museum Night; ask at the museum desk whether the platform is open on your day.
- Tickets: €6, reduced €3.
- Where: Priešpilio g. 2, 11 minutes on foot from the hotel.
History Museum of Lithuania Minor
The museum's home is one of the oldest Baroque buildings in Klaipėda, built in 1774 for the postmaster Johann Christian Witte – it even came with a vineyard. Inside, the story of the region unfolds from prehistory, Curonian and Skalvian burials and the Teutonic state to the first Lithuanian books and the traditional life of the Lietuvininkai, the Lithuanians of the Klaipėda region. A good first stop to understand why this city was German Memel for centuries. Tickets cost €4 (€2 reduced), with free audio guides in English and Lithuanian.
The Blacksmith's Museum
Five minutes from Bohema, the workshop of the blacksmith Gustav Katzke (1868–1944) still has its forge, bellows and tools. Look up at the hand-forged weathervanes typical of the port city, and at the iron grave crosses and fences rescued from the old city cemetery. Children can make their own Baltic-style jewellery in a real forge atmosphere (€5 per person, by arrangement). Entry €3, reduced €1.50.
The Clock and Watch Museum
Across the river, in a villa built in 1820 for the English merchant Johann Simpson, the Clock and Watch Museum tells the story of timekeeping from the ancient world to Art Nouveau. The best part is outside: a 19th-century courtyard full of working sundials, including an equatorial one that shows the precise mean solar time for Klaipėda's latitude, a mosaic of the sun's path through the constellations and “Measure the Time with Your Shadow” – a horizontal sundial on which you stand and become the pointer yourself.
- Opening hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10:00–18:00, Thursday 12:00–20:00, Sunday 10:00–16:00; closed on Mondays.
- Tickets: €5, reduced €2.50; free on the last Sunday of the month.
The carillon in the old post office
Next door stands the red-brick, Neo-Gothic former central post office, opened in 1893 – step inside to see its ornate post hall. Its 42-metre tower holds a carillon of 48 bells, cast in 2006 by Royal Eijsbouts in the Netherlands. Local news reported in 2024 that the recitals were suspended because the tower needs repairs, while some official pages still list weekend concert times – so ask at the tourist information centre at Turgaus g. 7 before you plan around them.
Pranas Domšaitis Gallery
Pranas Domšaitis (1880–1965) was born in East Prussia, visited Edvard Munch in 1914 and became an expressionist admired in Germany – until the Nazis declared his work “degenerate”. He ended his life in Cape Town, and his widow's collection came to Lithuania through a Lithuanian-American foundation. Since 2001 it has been on show in Klaipėda, close to the painter's childhood home: about 200 works, from oils to two-sided pictures, in a display renewed in 2023. Same hours and prices as the Clock Museum.
The Sculpture Park
For 150 years this was the city's main cemetery; since 1977 it has been a park with 116 sculptures by 67 Lithuanian artists. Among the trees you will also find the graves of participants in the 1923 uprising, restored tombstones of 19th-century benefactors and a 1925 boundary post between Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Major. Free and always open – a good place for a Monday.
Two more by the water
- Ship-museum Sūduvis – a former Lithuanian Navy minehunter moored on the Danė near the Castle bridge. €6, reduced €3; outside summer it is open from Friday to Sunday.
- Lithuanian Sea Museum – across the lagoon in Smiltynė, with an aquarium and dolphin shows. From October to February it opens only from Friday to Sunday. See our guide to the Sea Museum and Dolphinarium.
Half a day in the Old Town museums
- 10:00 The Blacksmith's Museum – buy the €9 combined ticket here.
- 10:45 The History Museum of Lithuania Minor, three minutes away.
- 12:00 The Castle Museum: Kurtina, the posterns and Museum 39/45.
- 13:45 Back via the swing bridge and the Black Ghost, and lunch in the Old Town.
In the afternoon (any day but Monday), cross the river to Liepų Street: the Clock Museum, the post office and the Domšaitis Gallery, then a walk through the Sculpture Park and back to the hotel in about 25 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Which Klaipėda museums are open on Monday?
Practically none of the indoor museums. The Sculpture Park and the street sculptures are always accessible, and Monday is a good day for the Curonian Spit.
Is there a combined museum ticket in Klaipėda?
Yes. The History Museum of Lithuania Minor, the Blacksmith's Museum and the Castle Museum cost €9 together (€4.50 reduced) instead of €13 separately. It is sold at the museums and on bilietai.lt and is used on the same day.
How much does Klaipėda Castle Museum cost?
€6 for adults and €3 for pupils, students and pensioners, with free audio guides in English, German, Russian and Lithuanian. From mid-September to mid-June it is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00–18:00.
Can you climb the rebuilt castle tower?
The 49-metre tower with a viewing platform at 30 metres was completed in November 2025 and has opened on special occasions such as Museum Night. Regular access is not published, so ask at the Castle Museum.
When can I hear the carillon?
The recitals on the 48-bell carillon in the old post office tower were reported suspended in 2024 because the tower needs repairs, and published times differ, so check with the tourist information centre before you go.
Are Klaipėda museums free on certain days?
Yes: on the last Sunday of each month the Clock Museum, the Domšaitis Gallery, the Lithuanian Sea Museum and the ship Sūduvis are free. Museum Night in May is also largely free.
Further reading
- Klaipėda's sculptures and legends: an Old Town treasure hunt
- A rainy day or winter in Klaipėda
- Sea Museum and Dolphinarium
Stay in the middle of it
From Bohema you can walk to every museum in this guide, drop by the hotel between them and still be on time for dinner in the Old Town. Have a look at our rooms.
Sources: History Museum of Lithuania Minor – prices, opening hours, Castle Museum, Clock and Watch Museum, Pranas Domšaitis Gallery, KlaipėdON – post office and carillon, Lithuanian Sea Museum. Prices and hours checked in October 2026. Photos: Alexey Komarov, Turaids (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.
