- Place
- Klaipėda City Municipality
- Region
- Klaipėda
- Type
- active harbour lighthouse and navigation aid
- Address
- Burių g. 9, Klaipėda
- Coordinates
- 55.72752, 21.09603
- Visit duration
- 15-30 minutes for an exterior view from lawful public approaches
- Best time
- in daylight, combined with Melnragė Park or the harbour piers
Klaipėda entrance rear leading light, Melnragė Lighthouse
A light first kindled in 1796
Klaipėda Lighthouse was first lit on 1 September 1796. It was among the earliest lighthouses on the south-eastern and north-eastern Baltic coast, built as the harbour grew and safe navigation after dark became increasingly important.
The tower was heightened and given a new lamp system in 1819. The old lighthouse was completely destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in 1945. The tower seen today continues the function of Lithuania's oldest lighthouse, but it is not an entirely authentic eighteenth-century structure.
A black-and-white leading-light tower
The official list of navigation aids calls it the Klaipėda entrance rear leading light. It is a round reinforced-concrete tower with black and white horizontal bands, a vertical black stripe on the leading-line side, a gallery, and a lantern room.
LTSA data gives the tower height as 37 metres and the focal height as 45 metres. Together with the front light, the rear light forms a 092.5-degree leading line that helps vessels maintain a safe course into Klaipėda harbour.
Working infrastructure, not an observation tower
The lighthouse stands inside the state seaport area near strategic facilities and remains an active navigation aid. Following interior and exterior repairs, a 2025 decision kept it closed to routine visits for security reasons and because it lacks visitor infrastructure.
The announced exception is one day a year around World Lighthouse Day, but the event is not guaranteed on the same date every year. Enter the tower or fenced grounds only with an explicit official invitation and follow all registration and security instructions.
How to see it lawfully
For an ordinary visit, plan only an exterior view from public parts of Burių Street, Melnragė Park, or another lawful approach. Do not cross barriers, enter harbour grounds, or stop in a road or industrial area to take photographs.
The lighthouse story pairs especially well with the Melnragė piers, where the harbour entrance, vessel traffic, and the logic of front and rear navigation marks become clearer. The tower stands about 500 metres from the sea, so it is not a lighthouse on the beach or at the end of a pier.
