Žemaičių Naumiestis

Žemaičių Naumiestis (Polish: Nowe Miasto, Yiddish: ניישטאָט טאווריג, ניישטאָט סוגינט) is a town in Klaipėda county, Šilutė district municipality in western Lithuania, between Klaipėda and Kaliningrad Oblast. The rivers Šustis, Šelmuo and Lendra flow through it.

For centuries, it was located at the border to Prussia, creating its distinctly multicultural population. Besides Lithuanian inhabitants, its Jewish and German populations—and to some degree Russian—have played significant roles in its history. As a result of the multi-layered events at the eve of World War II, over the course of the war and in the first decade after the war, this multi-cultural population structure was destroyed. It is reflected exclusively in the architectural heritage of Žemaičių Naumiestis. There is the wooden Catholic St. Michael Church (built in 1782), a Protestant church made of stone (built in 1842) and a stone synagogue (built in 1816).