The sculpture of the bride who captured a poet's heart

The sculpture in Klaipėda's city centre shows a young girl with a bare chest. It represents Taravos Anikė, one of the heroes praised by the poet Simonas Dachas. The sculpture was created to commemorate the poet's love.

Simonas Dachas, a professor and poet born in Klaipėda, was allegedly invited to a wedding in the local cathedral. He saw Anikė - a seventeen-year-old bride from a nearby village - and fell in love at first sight. One popular version of the story says she was the daughter of a priest from Tarava, a former settlement. An inscription on the pedestal reads: "Ännchen von Tharau, mein Reichthum, mein Gut, du meine Seele, mein Fleisch und mein Blut!" (Anike Taravos, turte didžiausias, tu mano siela, kūnas ir kraujas!).

The original sculpture was built in 1912, but it vanished during the war. There is a persistent rumor that it was removed in 1939 to make room for a monument to A. Hitler. What stands here now was unveiled in 1989. It is a reconstruction based on old photographs and a small original copy, unveiled by Alfonsas Žalys.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons