The Sports Palace – a derelict 1970s arena constructed on top of a historic Jewish cemetery – will be converted into a congress venue with tributes to the site’s history, the government said on Wednesday.
“The project will preserve the site’s historical significance and commemorate the events that took place there,” Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said in a press release.
The Sports Palace was the site of the founding congress of Lithuania’s Sąjūdis movement in October 1988. In January 1991, it hosted the wake of the January 13 crackdown victims, a landmark event in the country’s independence from the USSR.
Despite not being in use for decades, the Sports Palace is listed as cultural heritage due to its historic significance and architectural value. However, it was constructed on top of a 16-century Jewish cemetery, which has sparked opposition to the building’s continued use by Jewish communities.
In 2022, the government, then led by the conservative Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats, proposed turning the derelict building into a museum or memorial dedicated to Jewish history in Lithuania. An earlier government had planned to convert it into a congress centre, but the project never got off the ground.
Plans to repurpose the edifice, which was built in 1971 and has been unused for years, have been under discussion since 2015, when it was taken over by the government’s centralised public property management company, Turto Bankas.
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