This is the same "Riviera" café already introduced in exhibit No. 15 — only here it is shown up close, and unexpectedly full of people. The brick building's tall windows are flanked by decorative female figures — the same marble caryatids for which the café was known. Above the entrance hang two signs: "CAFÉ RESTAURANT" and, beside it, "KUBERNII" (likely from the Russian "губернія", meaning province or governorate) — as though on this particular day the café had welcomed guests not just for an afternoon outing, but for some larger, perhaps governorate-wide celebration or exhibition. Along the entire wall of the building, on chairs and at round little tables, sit dozens of people, while behind them rise the roof of a glass conservatory and a row of pitched white tents.
Written sources tell us that the café's kitchen was originally run by the palace's own chef, and that Count Vladislovas Tiškevičius kept a private room here for his own meals. In the evenings, guests were entertained by an eight-piece ensemble singing Italian songs in Neapolitan costume, illuminated boats floated on the water in imitation of Venice's St. Mark's Square, and the estate's summer-idle riding hall was converted into a theatre, where troupes of actors even came from Palanga to perform. This photograph, packed with guests and bearing an extra sign, most likely captures one of those special days when the "Riviera" turned into a genuine resort spectacle.
Unlike most other exhibits, this animation does not colour the photograph — it stays black and white. Instead, on the left edge of the frame, a puff of smoke or steam unexpectedly rises into the sky — as if somewhere just out of shot a kettle were boiling, a steam engine at work, or fireworks being readied. The crowd itself stays perfectly still, frozen at the exact second the photographer pressed the shutter.