IT’S PILGRIM’S KAUNASTIC GUIDE TO KAUNAS PLACES 9 CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE 13 LUTHERAN HOLLY TRINITY 19 CHURCH OF THE MOST 25 OBSERVATION DECK AND 31 HILL OF CROSSES 35 VYTAUTAS THE GREAT THE MARTYR AND BER- CHURCH SACRED HEART OF JESUS THE CROSS IN MEMORY OF K. Baršausko g. MOSQUE The symbol of the revival era is much smaller NARDINE MONASTERY Muitinės g. 8 A. Juozapavičiaus pr. 60 THE EXILED Totorių g. 6 than the Hill of Crosses in Šiauliai, but its A mosque built in the interwar period in the Papilio g. 7 This church is located in the old German Back in the end of the 19th century, Šančiai E. Fryko g. spiritual significance is immeasurable, after territory of the old Kaunas cemetery to As early as 1209 Francis of Assisi founded the quarter of Kaunas, reminiscent of the Hanseat- residents used to gather for prayer in the At the very end of Vaižganto Street a panora- all, during the occupation, from 1964 till 1989, commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Order of Catholic monks in Italy and called it ic League times. The word of God was started cemetery chapel. Later, a wooden storehouse ma of Kaunas railway station opens up. It a tank stood in its place. The first cross near death of Vytautas the Great is proof that the Order of Friars Minor, known today as the to be proclaimed according to the unaltered was adapted to the church’s needs and after commemorates a painful period in the history the 6th Fort roundabout was built around Kaunas is a friendly city open to various Bernardine Monks in Lithuania. They settled in Augsburg Confession in Kaunas in 1550. The the First World War, people prayed in the of Kaunas when the townspeople gathered here 1990. Now Kaunas Hill of Crosses has several cultures and religions. It was mostly a gather- Lithuania - first in Kaunas - in 1468. The parish was established in 1558 and the church gunpowder warehouse of the tsar’s army. At to look at their deported relatives, friends and dozen crosses and a few roofed poles and ing place for local Tatars, whose cemetery construction of one of the oldest churches and was built in 1683. 1953 it was closed due to the that time, the construction of a brick church loved ones for the last time. The small square is wayside shrines. was also located nearby. Now the mosque is monasteries in Kaunas started in 1492 and “lack of believers.” The Soviets handed over the began at the end of the currently Vokiečių clean and very quiet so you can spend some also frequented by Muslims who are studying, finished at around 1502–1504 or, according to building to the Kaunas Faculty of Vilnius Street, but it did not have a happy ending. time relaxing and reflecting. working, or raising their families in Kaunas. some historians, in 1512–1513. It is believed that University, where an assembly hall was And this significant example of modernist LENARTAVIČIŲ CHAPEL The brick mosque of Eastern and modern the architect of the church was Mykolas Enkin- installed. Fortunately, in April 1989, the congre- religious interwar period architecture, created 32 Vaistinės skg. 14 forms has been recently renovated and geris (Dancingas), who also created the St. gation of the Kaunas Lutheran parish started according to a simplified project by Algirdas MAIRONIS PALACE (MAI- became an adornment of the quiet part of Anne’s Church and Bernardine Church in praying in the church again. Šalkauskis, emerged with the help of Mamer- 26 There are many chapels in almost all parts of downtown. A contemporary highlight is a Vilnius. Stations of the cross and paintings of tas Lumbė, Šančiai parish priest at the time. RONIS LITHUANIAN LITERA- Kaunas that stand out because of their shape, trampoline right next to the mosque, resem- the 28 Bernardine martyrs might have been The church of monumental forms in the very TURE MUSEUM) size, and aesthetic solutions. Many of them bling a multicolored carpet installed instead of painted by monks themselves around 1740. In CHURCH OF THE BLESSED center of Šančiai is decorated with works by Rotušės a. 13 emerged after the restoration of independ- 14 ence. And the history of this one, located in an abandoned fountain. It was created by a 1950 the Soviet authorities closed the church famous Lithuanian artists. Liudas Truikys “I want all my furniture, books, paintings and SACRAMENT (STUDENTS) one of the yards of Žaliakalnis, dates back to famous Kaunas street artist Morfai. and turned it into storage for medicines. The fresco Angels was pained in the arch of the anything of historical value to be transferred to Vilniaus g. 31 the interwar period. It is said that the nobles Friars Minor resumed their activity in Lithuania the museum of my name”, was the recorded The Baroque church was built for the Domini- named Lenatravičiai built the chapel in 1925, only in 1993. Next to the renovated church, you dying wish of the priest and poet Jonas Mačiu- can Order. In 1700 the consecrated church in memory of their deceased child. There is will find a functioning Bernardine Monastery ST. JOSEPH’S CHURCH lis-Maironis. His palace turned museum, where 36 CHORAL SYNAGOGUE was given the name of the Body of Christ. 20 also a statue of Virgin Mary nearby. and the Domus Pacis guest house open to Panerių g. 72 various celebrations were held, valuable E. Ožeškienės g. 13 During the Soviet occupation it functioned as a pilgrims. artworks collected and students of the priest Before the Second World War, there were cinema. After the restoration of independence, The history of this church, aected by the seminary, located nearby and headed by almost forty Jewish places of worship in the church was handed over to the archdio- changes of eras, began... in the stables, where Maironis, often dropped by, is worth an hour or 33 KAUNAS ST. NICHOLAS Kaunas. The first known synagogue was cese. A 24-hour Eucharistic adoration takes after the First World War, prelate Povilas 10 CHURCH OF THE ASSUMP- more of your time. In addition, literary evenings MIRACLE OLD BELIEVERS demolished in 1716 but soon rebuilt. The place in the chapel set up inside the church. Januševičius established a shelter and found- TION OF THE BLESSED are often organized here, and the winner of the construction of the choral synagogue with At the end of August 2019, the passers-by ed primary and vocational schools and CHURCH Poetry Spring is traditionally crowned in the Baroque elements was finished in 1872 and VIRGIN MARY (VYTAUTAS) finally saw the renewed face of the church, a workshops. In 1932 a temporary church was Širvintų g. 15 erected here, a plan for a new building was garden. currently, it is the only working synagogue in Aleksoto g. 3 restored facade with newly revealed old window Lithuanian Old Believers are one of the nine drawn up, but its implementation was Kaunas. Its construction was funded by openings and the famous Face of Christ mosaic traditional religious communities in Lithuania. The church, most often called Vytautas, is the hampered by World War II. After it, the Levinas Boruchas Minkovskis, a merchant of lit up in the evenings, fitting perfectly with the They, like all the Old Believers, do not recog- oldest in Kaunas (first mentioned in 1439) and church was set up in two storey brick apart- 27 VAIŽGANTAS APARTMENT the 1st guild. In the territory of the synagogue, neo-Byzantine exterior of the church. nize the Nikon’s reforms made in the 17th the only church in Lithuania designed according ment building. Finally, part of the churchyard (J. TUMAS-VAIŽGANTAS which is looked after by the Kaunas Jewish century. Old Believers dier from the Ortho- to the Gothic cruciform plan. Historian Albertas was taken away from the church and a Religious Community (that has also estab- APARTMENT MUSEUM) dox believers not so much in dogmas as in Kojelavičius-Vijūkas, who lived nearby on cinema was built there. As hopes of liberation lished a museum there), you can visit a Aleksoto g. 10-4 liturgy and rites, ecclesiastical structure and Muitinės St. in the 17th century, wrote that CARMELITE CHURCH OF grew stronger, more and more believers in memorial dedicated to the 50 thousand 15 It seems like only yesterday the canon priest unique interpretation of biblical elements. Vytautas was beaten and almost drowned in the Vilijampolė started attending the church. Litvak children killed during the Holocaust. ST. CROSS Vaižgantas was writing his articles in a tasteful- You will find the only Old Believers church in river during the battle with the Tatars near Therefore, in 1983, the apartments on the And on the second floor of the building, there Gedimino g. 1 ly, but not too luxuriously furnished apartment Kaunas near the Žaliakalnis market. The Vorskla and after saving himself he promised to second floor were demolished, the ceiling was is an exposition of rabbi portraits. It is believed that the architect of this church and hurried to take his dachshund Kaukas out brick church was built in 1906. It is said that build a church on the riverbank as a gesture of raised to the attic and new altars were built. was the Italian Pietro Puttini, who also contribut- for an evening walk. Yellow canaries can be poet Salomėja Nėris would set up dates with gratitude to the Virgin Mary. It is interesting And in 2004, one more reconstruction was ed to the grandeur of the Pažaislis Camaldolese heard chirping in the apartment just like back her beloved Professor Juozas Eretas next to it.