Evangelical Lutheran Church, Plikiai

Plikiai, located on the Eketė Stream, a small tributary of the Danė River, has been known since the beginning of the 18th century. An independent Lutheran community was founded in 1891. It consisted of the villages of Baugštininkai, Eglynai, Grauminė, Lapyniškė, Medikiai, Pakamoriai, Radailiai, Smilgynai, Vytaučiai, Žemgrindžiai and others (25 in total) that previously were a part of the Kretingalė and Klaipėda farmer (Lith. laukininkai) parishes.

The first priest of the community was Feliksas Žemaitaitis. The name and surname suggest that he came from Lithuania Major. Thanks to his efforts, the construction of the priest’s house and the church began. The red brick neo-Gothic style church with a single tower was built in 1896 next to the Klaipėda-Jokūbavas road. It has some distinctive features: the tower moved to the left enlarges the building itself, the rectangular interior space of the two naves has a flat ceiling, choirs are depicted along the walls and an organ is located at the back. The pulpit is separate and installed on the right side. The wall has a plaque with a list of parishioners who died in World War I. The church had two bells.

Plikai’s parish school, which was built immediately after the consecration of the church, also left its mark in history, as in 1898 it was visited by Robert Bosse, the Prussian Secretary of Cultural Affairs. The high-ranking guest came to investigate how the ‘Resolution of 24 July 1873 of Supreme Presidium on the German language classes attended by Polish and Lithuanian children in the folk schools of the province of Prussia’ was complied with. With this resolution, the Lithuanian language was banned from schools. In the neighbouring school of the village of Triušeliai, R. Bosse found out that children of Prussian Lithuanians did not understand German: when asked ‘Hat Herr Gott geheisst oder verboten zu beten?’ (‘Did the Lord God command or forbid to pray?’), Everyone was silent and kept their heads down. However, at Plikiai’s parish school, the situation was different. According to the ‘Pašaukimas’ supplement to the ‘Konservatyvų draugystės laiškas’ paper published in Priekulė, ‘The Secretary was very glad because the children were able to respond perfectly and clearly in German and Lithuanian’.

The parish of Plikiai was not large: it had 2,700 members (about 2,000 [or 74%] of which were Lithuanians) in 1900, 2,730 in 1921, 2,600 in 1926 and 2,800 in 1936.

The post-war community of Plikiai parish was officially registered on 28 September 1948. Its long-term chairman was Hermanas Jogutis.

The current community of Plikiai Evangelical Lutheran Parish is quite small, with about 120 members.