Photo by Saulius Žiūra

In response to a Government decision not to go forward with plans to reconstruct the Palace of Sports in Vilnius, the Vilnius City Council adopted a resolution today [August 25] urging the Government and other state institutions to continue with the reconstruction project to build the Congress Center [convention center] meeting international standards and important to the nation as a whole.

Vilnius mayor Remigijus Šimašius tabled the resolution and said: “It is very important for Vilnius that the central part of the city be vital, and the renovated facility would allow for exploiting the potential of conference tourism. There is a real lack of a conference center in Vilnius. Maybe the Government has a different vision, but I would highly urge to continue the project which the capital, business and all of Lithuania need.”

The city council pointed out the capital has set for itself the goal of building a conference venue in its general plan and other strategic documents which could appear following reconstruction of this protected building with unique architecture.

The Palace of Concerts and Sports in Vilnius was built 50 years ago for concerts and athletic activities. The Vilnius city council on their webpage say it would meet the needs of modern conferences excellently after reconstruction. It’s located right in the center of the city and can be seen perfectly from the various panoramic viewing points located around the city. Because of its unique architecture, the city council said, it cannot be reequipped to serve a function other than the one it was intended for. They say since Vilnius doesn’t have a conference center meeting the demands of organizers of international conferences, larger international events which would have been the most profitable to the local economy have decided to skip the Lithuanian capital. They say the Government’s decision to shelve the project will deprive the city of revenues from conference tourism.

The city council said significant cultural heritage treasures must be preserved as the shared goals of the city and country are implemented. They said the Palace of Sports which opened to the public in 1971 along with the old Jewish cemetery site under state protection should be protected and made available for appropriate public use.

City development agency Go Vilnius head of conferences department Vita Žilinskaitė said large and financially profitable international events have forgone the capital city until now. While conference tourism around the world did stop because of virus fears, the prognosis is for the conference industry to rebound completely by 2024. She said competition between cities for events is happening now for the 2024-2027 period. Originally the plan was for the Congress Center to open its doors in late 2022 or early 2023. City sources said commercial hopes will also be dashed by the Government’s decision, because many business-class hotels appeared in Vilnius as a result of plans to refurbish the venue and cannot now recoup their investment.

The city council in their resolution also said both the present state of the building and its conservation by cosmetic renovation show disrespect to the history of Vilnius and Litvak history, and create an urban eyesore in the center of the nation’s capital. Having halted the implementation of the project to create the Congress Center and maintain the old Jewish cemetery there in the Šnipiškės neighborhood, city officials said, the building in its current poor condition is doomed to fall into ruin, and the territory of the historic cemetery in the very heart of the city will not be available to the public for learning about the history of the city of Vilnius and for appropriate public use.

Full story in Lithuanian here.

Note: The Palace of Sports building in Vilnius isn’t unique, there’s an almost-exact copy of it which continues to function in central Minsk, the Dvorets sporta, built around the same time.