guid e ip r t t r i p e EN d g i u CONTEMPORARY Kaunas 33 p. Interwar signs in Kaunas 51 p. Active tourism 60 p. 2 p. 39 p. Kaunas lagoon Intro to Kaunas Arts and culture 53 p. regional park 46 p. Water 26 p. attractions 65 p. Museums Festivals and Good to know! events 55 p. 29 p. Castles and Walking trails manors of through history Panemunė WELCOME TO KAUNAS – the second city of Lithuania, where you will be welcomed by wonderful sights, unique architecture, a wide range of entertainment, and the unique atmosphere of a student-esque city! Kaunas radiates contemporary the church and turned it into a ware- European attitude and its vast house. The Church was returned to the history. It is strategically the most Bernardine monks in 2005. The church convenient meeting point in the was decorated with baroque wooden in- country! Current architecture, stallations in the 18th century: a pulpit, impressive interwar modernism and organ choir with wooden galleries, and 8 the old town rooftops all altars. Some of them have survived to this complement each other. It‘s day. The church interior is dominated by best to start your trip in the Old Gothic elements and Baroque features. Town – enjoyable experiences There is an operating monastery on the await! south side of the church. INTRO TO KAUNAS > OLD TOWN 1. KAUNAS CASTLE 3. SANTAKA PARK (Pilies g. 17) (Santakos g.) www.kaunomuziejus.lt What we call the heart of Kaunas. Walk- The castle at the confluence of the Ne- ing around it you can see how the Ne- munas and Neris rivers was built in munas and the Neris rivers converge. the 14th century to defend against the Santaka Park has plenty of tourist at- onslaught of crusaders. This is not only tractions: the altar that was used to one of the first stone castles in Lithua- perform pagan rituals, Pope Hill, where nia, but also the only one that has two Pope John Paul II visited and held holy rows of defensive walls. A settlement mass in 1993 and Pope Francis in 2018, a that grew into the current city was statue of John Paul II, St. George’s church created around the Gothic defences. and the Bernardine monastery ensem- Kaunas castle first mentioned in written ble, Kaunas Castle. sources in 1361. According to legend, Queen Bona Sforza’s troops mysteriously 4. KAUNAS TOWN HALL AND disappeared in the tunnels underneath. SQUARE Although it was restored multiple times, (Rotušės a. 15) the castle lost its importance in 1408 www.kaunomuziejus.lt when Kaunas was granted Magdeburg Kaunas was granted the Magdeburg rights rights and the life of the whole city in 1408, which meant the city could have moved to the Market (Town Hall) Square. self-government and control of trade. The castle was home to a prison in the The marketplace and elected government 16th century and the souls of the prison’s (magistrate) headquarters comprised inmates have not found peace to this the nucleus of the city. The main trade very day, haunting the castle still by route went through the current Town night. At present, the castle houses the Hall Square; there was a market, too. Museum of Kaunas and annual cultural Merchants’ families stayed around this events are held in and around it. Near square, building houses and setting up the castle stands an almost 7-meter high shop. When the city joined the Hanseat- bronze sculpture “Freedom Warrior”. ic League, the square became even more 2. ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR important because it operated as a com- CHURCH AND BERNARDINE mercial centre for the city and the sur- MONASTERY rounding area. The square is where trade took place, but also served as the venue (Papilio g. 7, 9) for publication of magistrate rulings and This is one of the oldest churches in the pillory to punish offenders. Artwork Kaunas, open since 1503. St. George the combining three stlistic periods – Gothic, Martyr Church was given to the Bernar- Renaissance, Classicism – stands at 29 Kaunas Old Town is the dine monks settled in the city. The church Town Hall Square. There have been var- oldest part of the city was destroyed by fire and war many times ious premises in the building: a pharma- covering 144 ha. Here you and had to be rebuilt. In 1812 Napoleon’s cy, post office, small workshop, shops, and can easily find Gothic, army turned it into a flour warehouse. residential houses. The most important Renaissance and Baroque The last great reconstruction took place in building in the Town Hall Square is Town style buildings. 1936. Later, the Soviet government closed Hall. Construction began in 1542. The 2 3 termined the bust to be purchased from Hanseatic merchants. Probably most homes were built for commercial affairs, and the name of the Perkūnas House was given to it later to point out Kaunas independence from foreign merchants and pay homage to ancient Lithuanian religious – pagan – traditions. The Ado- mas Mickevičius Museum is also located here; he was one of the most famous romantic poets who lived in Kaunas. INTRO TO KAUNAS > OLD TOWN 7. THE KAUNAS BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION CHURCH (AKA THE VYTAUTAS THE GREAT CHURCH) (Aleksoto g. 3) This is oldest church in Kaunas, built in 1400. It is the only Gothic-style church with a crossshaped plan in Lithuania. According to historians, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas was beaten up in battle with the Tatars at Vorskla and almost drowned in the river. Upon his rescue, to show his gratitude, Vytau- tas promised the Virgin Mary to build a church on the bank of the river. The Vytautas the Great Bridge church first referred to in documents in 1439, belonged to the Franciscans. The waterfront at the Vytautas church was equipped with a marina so that sail- boats could moor, and later steamers. In stately building is filled with a Gothic, the museum unveiled acommemorative Mickevičius taught and lived. This is 1877 a Nemunas water level gauging sta- Baroque, and early classicist spirit; at all, plaque to Władysław Starewicz, a pup- confirmed by a memorial plaque on the tion was established next to the church. slender tower like a swan’s neck sprouts in pet animation pioneer, often called the school building. At present, the school is The station meter is installed on a the sky the main facade. Town Hall is of- European Walt Disney. Starewicz worked a Jesuit Gymnasium. granite wall. Zero altitude is 20.8 meters ten referred to as the White Swan because in the building for a while. A memorial above sea level. of its shape and colour. Its 53-meter-high plaque to him is held by insect sculptures 6. THE HOUSE OF PERKŪNAS tower is the tallest in the Old Town. The depicting the director’s three main car- (Aleksoto g. 6) 8. VYTAUTAS THE GREAT BRIDGE current Town Hall is not the first in toon characters: a stag-beetle, an ant, and www.perkunonamas.lt Kaunas. The preceding one was destroyed a grasshopper. Aka the longest bridge in the world. In It is considered to be the only trading order to cross the bridge from one bank by fire and then rebuilt. Through various post in Lithuania that belonged to the centuries, the purpose of the Town Hall 5. THE KAUNAS ST. FRANCIS of the Nemunas to the other took 13 XAVIER CHURCH (JESUIT) Hanseatic merchants. This is an old days, because Kaunas belonged to the changed: this is where the city’s markets, monument to original Gothic architec- fairs, and trials took place; 9 wax melting (Rotušės a. 8) Russian Empire and Aleksotas to the ture, built in the second half of the 15th Prussian kingdom up to 1807. The dif- furnaces, a prison, and warehouses were The south side of Town Hall Square is century. It is a stone building with an ferent sides of the river had different operated under the Town Hall building dominated by a Baroque Jesuit church ornate pediment and a spacious base- calendars, which included a 13-day dif- cobblestones. Currently, the Town Hall with a convent and school buildings ment. The main facade of the building ference. During World War II the bridge holds ceremonies and official events. on either side. Construction of this late is decorated with rectangular niches was blown up twice, only to be reborn At the town hall entrance you can see Baroque style, rectangular, two-tow- and a decorative solar symbol composed in 1948 (architect Levas Kazarinskis); the a unique 15th century wax melting fur- er church began in 1666, but it was of glazed stones. The real purpose of the bridge retraction mechanism is still of nace. Kaunas City Museum is located in only consecrated in 1759. The Jesuit house is unknown. Legend has it that a use today. Having crossed the Nemunas the Town Hall (www.kaunomuziejus.lt). monastery terrace operates a viewing sculpture of the god Perkūnas was dis- you can try the funicular and the climb Its departments accumulate works of platform overlooking the Town Hall covered in one of the walls here and that to the Aleksotas area where you will see city history, science and industry, culture Square and the beauty of Old Town. priestesses kept an eternal flame lit here. a breathtaking panorama of Kaunas. and the arts, and archaeology, as well as Next to the school in the church However, researchers have collected a audiovisual materials. It is symbolic that in 1819-1823, romantic poet Adomas number of items from the house and de- 4 5 9.