Klaipėda (Lithuanian pronunciation: [ˈkɫɐɪˑpʲeːdɐ], listen ; German name: Memel, Samogitian name: Klaipieda, Polish name: Kłajpeda), is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County.
The city has a complex recorded history, partially due to the combined regional importance of the usually ice-free Port of Klaipėda at the mouth of the Akmena-Danė River. It was controlled by successive German states until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the 1923 Klaipėda Revolt it was added to Lithuania and has remained with Lithuania to this day, except for the period between 1939 and 1945 when it returned to Germany following the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania and the German–Soviet Union Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
The population has shrunk from the city to suburbs/surrounding areas, The city itself had a population of 207,100 in 1992 to 157,350 in 2014, but the city is growing again. Popular seaside resorts found close to Klaipėda are Nida to the south on the Curonian Spit, and Palanga to the north.