History of Kretinga

y:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">The World War II Nazi occupation saw the elimination of Kretinga's Jewish population as they were faced with death or deportation. The Soviet occupation in 1945 led to further reductions in the population as refugees fled to the west and many of those trapped were deported to Siberia.

The local economy stagnated under the Soviet occupation, which forcibly collectivized the farms in the area; it became an economic backwater.

Since Lithuania's independence in 1990, the town has made a recovery - it has much to offer by way of history and art. Kretinga hosts folk music festivals, theatricals, the Kretinga Festival, celebrations on Midsummer Night's Eve (Joninės) and Mardi Gras (Užgavėnės), and a Manorial Feast. The manor is now a museum housing artistic and archeological collections and a restaurant in the adjacent greenhouse, called "The Winter Garden". A Cambrian geothermal reservoir underlies the area, and the Vydmantai power plant exploiting this resource is being built nearby