Salantai is named after the Salantas River, which runs through the town.
History
Aleksandras Bendikas, book carrier and publisher
Salantai area was known to be inhabited since the Bronze Age - 1st millennium BC. Since 1556 Skilandžiai manor and town are mentioned. In 1567 town had a marketplace, 4 streets and 27 houses. In 1630 first church was built and since 1638 Skilandžiai was started to be named as Salantai. In 1667 parish school was founded. In 1668 Salantai was being named a town in which 66 families lived. In 1750 forty Catholic homes or homesteads (kiemas) were counted. A few years later, in 1765, the first enumeration of Jewish taxpayers found 279.[1]
Aleksandras Bendikas, the Lithuanian book carrier and publisher settled in Salantai and since 1905 started to publish a calendar for the farmers Traveler, leaving to Samogitia and Lithuania (Keleivis, išeinąs į Žemaičius ir Lietuvą). A parson, canon Pranas Urbonavičius established a consumers' co-operativeKaukas in 1905, in 1906 opened a Lithuanian primary school for girls supported by the Saulė Society, and in 1906–1911 built church (archit. Karlas Eduardas Strandmanas).
This town is known for three famed rabbis: Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin Salanter, his teacher Rabbi Zundel Salant, and Rabbi Shmuel Salant, who spent most of his life in Salantai. Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem between 1866 and 1910, also lived here before immigration.
During the summer of 1941, 95 Jews of the city were massacred in a mass execution by Nazis and their local collaborators in the nearby forest.[2]
Culture
The Orvydas Farmstead located on the outskirts of Salantai is a sculpture park created by the Lithuanian artist Vilius Orvydas.[3]
