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Kaunas is an old town which is dominated by houses built in Gothic and Renaissance architecture. With the center around the fine town hall square in the old town, pleasant streets lead in all directions, where you will find churches, monasteries, museums and Kaunas Castle. The town hall is in itself a great sight on the square.
To the east of the town hall you find the newer parts of the city, which offer both fine boulevards and beautiful buildings from the recent centuries. The Garrison Church stands as the centerpiece of this part of the city, which has the pedestrian street, Laisvės alėja, as its central axis and the connection between the church and the old town.
One of the most distinctive building in Kaunas is Christ’s Resurrection Church, built in functionalism, and it stands tall on one of the hills that you can easily reach on foot or by one of the city’s funicular railways, which is a fun and different mode of transport.
There are beautiful and interesting places in the vicinity of Kaunas; an open-air museum takes visitors to an atmosphere of historic Lithuania, and the city of Elektrenai offers and insight into Soviet urban planning. If you take a trip to Vilnius, you should also stop at the unique castle in Trakai, which gives the atmosphere of a bygone era when knights ruled the area.
Kaunas Castle was built in the 13th century as the first real defense structure in Lithuania. The original walls were 13 meters high and over 2 meters thick, but after a siege in 1362, the castle was overcome and the walls torn down.
However, already six years later, in 1368, the castle was reinforced. It had four castle towers at the time, but they have been destroyed over the centuries by the close location of the river Neris, which has also washed away the northern wall.
After the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410, the threat from the Teutonic Order disappeared and with it the castle’s military importance. The buildings were then mainly used for administration and as a residence. For a time, the castle was also used as a prison, but from the 19th century it was allowed to fall into disrepair.
From the 1930s, the remaining ruins were protected, and today the castle ruins have been restored and partially rebuilt. They stand beautifully in a large green area that stretches all the way to the confluence of the Neris and Nemunas rivers.
On the south side of Kaunas’ Town Hall Square is this beautiful Jesuit church, which was built in Baroque style from 1666 to its consecration in 1672. The church burned in 1732, was rebuilt and re-consecrated in 1759. A monastery and a college were built in the years 1761-1768 , where the Jesuits’ complex had thereby grown significantly since the order’s start in Kaunas in 1642.
At the beginning of the 1770s, the Pope abolished the Jesuit order in the area, but instead of giving up their church, the monks chose in 1787 to convert to the Franciscan order. In 1824, the Russian tsarist administration turned the building into a Russian Orthodox church, and 19 years later it was named after Alexander Nevsky. Since then, it has had various purposes, including being used as a technical school during Lithuania’s Soviet period.
The beautiful baroque interior has been preserved in the church, which first regained its purpose as a Jesuit church in 1923 and then in 1990. The Jesuits had come back to Lithuania after World War I, and with the country’s independence the handover had been made possible.
In the center of Kaunas’ town hall square is the 53 meter high white town hall, which was built in the years 1542-1562 in the late Baroque style. Originally it only had a ground floor, but the building’s upper floor and tower were built in the late 16th century.
The building has been used for many different purposes over time. It has naturally housed Kaunas’ administration, while an Orthodox church was located here for a time from 1824. Ammunition depot, residence of Russian tsars, Russian theater and club rooms are other uses that Kauno rotušė has been designed for.
In the preserved 16th-century basement, a ceramic museum, Keramikos Muziejus (Rotušės aikštė 15), has been set up today, while various official ceremonies, receptions and weddings are held in the town hall itself.
Laisvės alėja is Kanua’s elegant street that runs centrally through the whole of modern Kaunas. It was built at the end of the 19th century during an expansion of the city to the east, and the western end of the alley thus starts quite close to Kaunas’ old town.
The majority of the houses along Laisvės alėja are from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, and due to defense purposes in general in Kaunas, the normal building height was 2-3 floors.
A walk along Laisvės alėja is a must during a visit to the city. The long straight stretch is a pedestrian street over 1,600 meters in length. In the middle are fine rows of beautiful linden trees, which give a refined urban environment. Along the avenue is generally a pleasant atmosphere with fountains, benches and a multitude of shops.
The Church of the Resurrection of Christ is one of Kaunas’ most distinctive buildings. It is built high above the city on top of Den Grønne Bakke/Žaliakalnis.
After the end of the First World War, it was decided to build the church as a thank you to God for the country’s newly gained independence. Kaunas was chosen as the home of the church, as Vilnius at that time belonged to Poland. An architectural competition was announced in 1926, and Karolis Reisonas’ proposal from 1928 was chosen. The final project was ready in 1933, and the foundation stone was brought to the city from the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem the following year.
The church is built in a monumental functionalist style, and was almost finished in 1940, when the Second World War put an end to the last work, which was mainly the interior design. In the Soviet era, the large building was arranged as a radio factory building, and it functioned as such until 1988. In the 1990s, work started again with the church building, and the beautiful building could be inaugurated in 2004.
The high tower of the church has a height of 70 meters, and a viewing terrace has been built on the entire top of the nave, which gives the city probably the best panorama over the whole of Kaunas. Opposite the tall tower is a smaller tower above the church’s altar.
This church has the status of a Roman Catholic cathedral basilica and is at the same time Kaunas’ and Lithuania’s largest Gothic building. Its exact foundation is not known, but the church is first mentioned in 1413. Over the following two hundred years, the church was expanded, and it was completed in 1624.
The building was partially destroyed during hostilities in 1655 and rebuilt in 1671 with features from the Renaissance architecture of the time. In 1732, the church’s roof was hit by a fire which, among other things, left the original two towers in ruins; subsequently, only one was rebuilt.
In connection with the renovation, which stretched over many years and also in the interior of the church, King Stanisław August Poniatowski financed a lot of new things in the 1770s. This applied, for example, to the main altar, which dates from 1775. With these renovations, the church came to appear with today’s dominant feature of elegant baroque.
Pope Leo XIII elevated the church to cathedral status in 1895, and the basilica title was added in 1926 when the region’s episcopal see was restructured under Pope Pius XI. The church’s current appearance and interior are largely as they were from around 1800, when the most recent major renovation took place. Its dimensions are 84 meters in length and 34 meters in width, while the tower is 42 meters high.
This church was built for the Imperial Russian garrison in the years 1891-1895, and it is typical of the Baltic Russian Orthodox church buildings. The inspiration is Byzantine, and the decoration includes the traditional and dominant five domes. However, there are also atypical eclectic elements such as the Corinthian columns on the facade.
The 50-metre-high church was temporarily arranged as an art museum during the Soviet Union, but it has now been transferred to religious purposes in the Catholic church, where it is dedicated to the archangel Michael and is therefore also called Archangel Michael’s Church/Šv. Arkangelo Mykolo church.
This beautiful mansion was the presidential palace in Lithuania in the period between World War I and World War II. The building was built in 1846 as a noble residence. In 1866, a garden was laid out at the house, which in 1876 was bought by the Russian government to house the local governor.
When Lithuania proclaimed its independence in 1918, the house became the property of the state, and as Vilnius was under Polish rule, Kaunas became the temporary capital. On that occasion, this particular mansion was designated as the presidential residence; a status it had until 1940.
During the Soviet era, the mansion was first used as a cinema and later as the seat of a teachers’ organization.
At the beginning of the 1990s, statues of the three Lithuanian presidents who lived here were erected in the palace’s garden; Antanas Smetona, Aleksandras Stulginskis and Kazys Grinius.
Today, the mansion is set up as a section of the art museum that bears the name of the painter and writer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
This is Lithuania’s largest seminary, and it belongs to Kaunas’ Roman Catholic archbishopric. The seminary was founded in 1863 after the Lithuanian-Polish January Uprising of the same year, which resulted in the bishopric of the area being moved from Varniai to Kaunas.
In the later part of the 19th century, the seminary was partly taught in Lithuanian, and book smuggling of Lithuanian books also took place. The Lithuanian-language newspaper Lietuva also saw the light of day as one of the examples of the growing Lithuanian consciousness in the Russian tsarist empire.
During the First World War, the building complex served as a military hospital, and during the Soviet era, the number of study places was severely reduced. However, it continued as the country’s only active seminary, which it is with renewed vigor today.
Today you can see and enjoy the place’s fine houses, which form a cozy environment in the old town. Small gardens are located between the seminary buildings.
This museum is considered among the most important in Lithuania, whose history is depicted here from the earliest times to the modern republic that characterizes the country today. The museum opened in 1936, and many different known effects are exhibited here; among others the plane wreck of Lituanica, which in 1933 was flown from New York towards Kaunas by two Lithuanians. The plane crashed en route in Germany.
Outside the museum stand three monuments; The Statue of Liberty/Laisvės Statula, erected in 1989, the monument to the country’s independence from 1990, the Nepamikkustos Paminklas, and the bronze statue of Vytautas the Great, who in his time established Lithuanian power. Vytautas rests on four fallen soldiers from the surrounding lands. Here you will also find the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where an eternal flame burns.
The monumental museum building was built by the architect Dubeneckis and is one of the city’s most significant buildings from recent times.
This Gothic church was built in the early 15th century. It got its name from the founder, Vytautas the Great, who erected it as a thank you to the Virgin Mary for saving Vytautas’ life during the defeat at the Battle of Vorskla on 12 August 1399.
In 1812, the church was burned by French troops and later restored. In 1845 it was closed as a Catholic church and it reopened as an Orthodox church instead. At the beginning of the 20th century, the barracks were set up here, and for a time the building was used as a warehouse. In 1919 it became Catholic again.
The church is beautifully situated on the banks of the river Nemunas, and its interior is a simple and quite stylish Gothic church room. The Lithuanian writer Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas is buried in the crypt.
Ąžuolynas is a 63-hectare park located immediately east of Kaunas city centre. Historically, it is planted with oak trees, and you find them up to 300 years old. However, there are also many other trees to see.
The large green area is a remnant of a very large area of oak forest, which was otherwise felled in the 1300s and 1500s to provide timber for, for example, buildings. Today it is a very popular place among the city’s inhabitants.
A number of facilities for sports and culture are located in Ąžuolynas. Among other things, you will find the outdoor stage Dainų slėnis, which is the setting for song festivals. Approximately in the middle of the park you can see a large bronze statue of the bison bull Stumbras, which is the city’s symbol. At the eastern end of the park is Kaunas Zoo (Radvilėnų plentas 21).
In this department of the national art museum in the city, you can see, among other things, works by the artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, who is considered by many to be the most famous Lithuanian artist of all time.
Čiurlionis painted around 300 works and composed approximately 250 pieces of music; most of his paintings can be seen in this museum. Čiurlionis’ created his works around the year 1900 and was at the same time inspired by and inspired currents of this time such as fin de siècle and art nouveau.
Vilniaus gatvė is the name of the old road that leads east from Kaunas’ old town towards the current Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Most of the buildings were originally made of wood, which can still be seen in various places, but they were gradually replaced by larger stone houses.
Today, the street is a string of beautiful buildings that together form a particularly beautiful and harmonious street, which you should take a walk through when you are in Kaunas.
This funicular is named after the top station on Den Grønne Bakke/Žaliakalnis. The small track was built by German Curt Rudolph Transportanlagen in 1931 as the first in Lithuania.
The track runs 142 meters upwards from Kaunas’ central district. From the opening on 5 August 1931, only one passenger car ran, while the counterweight was a ballast car. In the years 1935-1937, the track was expanded; among other things with two new passenger cars.
Kaunas’ Town Hall Square is the center of the old town. It was built from 1542 and is a very cozy space in the city. The square is widely used by the city’s inhabitants for both quiet strolls and as a meeting place.
The dominant buildings are the city’s town hall and the Jesuit church, and around Rotušės aikštė there is also a strip of German merchant houses from the 16th-17th centuries. You can also find a literature museum, Maironio lietuvių litiųs muziejus (Rotušės aikštė 13), which is dedicated to the popular Lithuanian writer Maironis, who lived here in the period 1910-1932.
Perkūno Namas is one of Lithuania’s most beautiful secular Gothic houses. It was originally built by merchants from the Hanseatic League, who used it as their seat in the city in the years 1440-1532. The building style, with niche-rich gables, is typical of buildings in the Hanseatic cities.
In the 16th century, the house was sold to Jesuit monks, who furnished a chapel in the house in 1643. In the same century, the monks built the nearby Jėzuitų church (Rotušės aikštė 7).
However, Perkūno Namas came to be in ruins, and part of the original double building was demolished in the 18th century. It was therefore rebuilt in the 19th century, where it was initially set up as a school and theatre.
Later in the 19th century, it was named after the Baltic thunder god Perkūnas, which naturally became the House of Thunder/Perkūno Namas. The reason was that a picture of Perkūnas was found on one of the walls of the building.
For a period from 1928 and again since 1991, the place has belonged to the Jesuits, and a museum for the Polish-Lithuanian poet Adam Mickiewicz has now been set up here, among other things. Mickiewicz was a transfer in Kaunas and in precisely Perkūno Namas.
The Kaunas Music Theater was established in 1891 and the first performance took place the following year. The theater was built in an elegant style and has a beautiful neo-baroque exterior.
When Kaunas was the country’s capital in the years between World War I and II, the theater became the country’s leading venue for drama, ballet and opera. In 1948, the ballet and opera were moved to Vilnius, and then this theater was set up as a musical theater. Today, operas can once again be found on the venue’s programme.
The village of Rumšiškės is beautifully situated by the lake Kauno Marios, which was once dammed for Kanuas’ hydroelectric power plant. Rumšiškės is home to Lithuania’s ethnographic open-air museum, which displays various parts of the country’s way of life and building style from the 18th century to the present day.
There are four themed areas in the 176-hectare park, Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija and Žemaitija. Each of the areas focuses on a region in Lithuania; both with the built houses, but also with culture and the flora of the places.
Trakai’s beautiful water castle is the central building in the city. It was built from the 14th century in the middle of the large, beautiful lake area, which it is itself completely surrounded by. Construction was initiated by Grand Duke Kęstutis, who moved his residence here, and thus the country was ruled from here. The castle was expanded in several phases and both strengthened as a fortress and as a castle in the 15th century, when the water level in the lake was several meters higher than today, which made the castle even better protected.
After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, Trakai Borg lost its originally intended military-strategic significance, but for a period it continued to be built and resided here. Grand Duke Vytautus the Great lived here and he died on Trakai in 1430.
Later, the remote location was used as a prison, but over time the buildings became increasingly dilapidated.
From the end of the 19th century, the first initiatives to preserve and reconstruct Trakai Borg started. The most extensive renovation and reconstruction was carried out after the Second World War. Work began in the 1950s, and the castle was completed in the style from the 15th century in 1961.
Today, Trakai Borg is almost complete and newly built. It is a very interesting experience, and since 1962 a historical museum has been set up in the buildings.
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and at the same time a city with an atmosphere that is a nice mix of the Baltic area and Central Europe. Baroque building style and, not least, countless churches characterize the narrow and pleasant streets of the city center, but it is not far to modern neighborhoods which add a cosmopolitan touch.
Small and large squares are all around the old center. And there are many interesting museums, monuments and other sights to enjoy. Shopping, culture and gastronomy are something else that are parts of the Vilnius experience.
Kryziu Kalnas is one of Europe’s most bizarre and at the same time impressive sights. In the area with the two hills, crosses have been erected since the 14th century; all with a background in faith. Some are placed in memory of the deceased, while others are set up in connection with prayers.
One can see thousands of crosses covering the area completely in a jumble of impressions. They are not all original from Korshøjen’s first centuries, as the authorities cleared part of the mound during the 20th century. The population quickly set up a new cross, thereby preserving the unique site.
Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49
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Islandijos 32
mega.lt
Baršausko 66a
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Laisvės alėja, Vilniaus gatvė, Savanorių prospektas
Zoologijos sodas
Radvilėnų plentas 21
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Lietuvos Jūrų Muziejus
Smiltyné 3, Klaipeda, 200 km W
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Lietuvos Aviacijos Muziejus
Veiverių 132
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Kaunas, where the Neris and Nemunas rivers flow, and it is mentioned for the first time in written sources in 1361. However, due to its strategically located location, a settlement in the 9th century had already emerged, which in the following century became a real urban communities by that time scale.
Kaunas in the 1300s was built as a defense against the German Order, which ravaged the area on several occasions, and in 1362 the order conquered the city. When the Polish-Lithuanian forces, led by Vytautas the Great, won the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the city’s great rise in trade and culture began. On that occasion, Kaunas and, like Vilnius, acquired marketplace rights, which led to a greatly increased trade.
Contact with Western Europe grew sharply from the 15th century. Kaunas was a major river port and the city was on the intersecting trade routes. In 1441, Kauna became a member of the Hanseatic League, which opened offices in the city. In the 16th century several large buildings were erected and many institutions established, making Kaunas one of the leading cities in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The Baroque building style has made its mark on many cities in Lithuania, including Kaunas, which can be seen in many church buildings, for example. It dates from the end of the 16th century and through the 17th century, and it was the golden age of Kaunas.
In 1665, Russian forces attacked Kaunas, and in 1701 Swedish armies invaded the area; including the city of Kaunas itself. It was also a period of plague (1657 and 1708) and great fires (1731 and 1732) that destroyed parts of the city.
With the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian state in 1795, Kaunas became part of the Russian Empire. By Napoleon’s French invasion of Russia in 1812, his armies came through the city twice, and in both cases brought great destruction.
There was an ongoing cultural and industrial development throughout the 19th century, when Kaunas was part of Russia. The building style was Russian inspired during this time; An example is the Byzantine church, which was erected for the Russian garrison, which was stationed in Kaunas in the mid-19th century.
It was also towards the end of the 19th century that the city was seriously expanded with new neighborhoods. Most notable was the site of the Laisves aleja alone, which extends as the main strip east of Kaunas old town, and around which many major public institutions are assembled.
Kaunas became Lithuania’s new capital between World War I and World War II, with Vilnius being part of Poland at that time. A number of new institutions and administrative buildings were founded in the city that remain visible; among other things, there is a presidential mansion here. The 1920s became an expansive time in the city, expanding to more than double the area before the period. Thousands of homes, bridges, roads, sewers, transport systems, and more were constructed to radically modernize and develop the city.
In the decades following World War II, Kaunas and the rest of Lithuania were one of the republics of the Soviet Union. During that time, there was renewed growth in the city with the establishment of power plants and a number of industries in the area. A new period of construction began as Lithuania became an independent country after the Soviet era, and today there are plenty of experiences in the beautiful city center with, among other things, prestigious museums, churches, pedestrian streets, shopping centers and good nature.
Kaunas, Lithuania[/caption]
Overview of Talkeetna
Kaunas is an old town which is dominated by houses built in Gothic and Renaissance architecture. With the center around the fine town hall square in the old town, pleasant streets lead in all directions, where you will find churches, monasteries, museums and Kaunas Castle. The town hall is in itself a great sight on the square.
To the east of the town hall you find the newer parts of the city, which offer both fine boulevards and beautiful buildings from the recent centuries. The Garrison Church stands as the centerpiece of this part of the city, which has the pedestrian street, Laisvės alėja, as its central axis and the connection between the church and the old town.
One of the most distinctive building in Kaunas is Christ’s Resurrection Church, built in functionalism, and it stands tall on one of the hills that you can easily reach on foot or by one of the city’s funicular railways, which is a fun and different mode of transport.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
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Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
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The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
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This church was built for the Imperial Russian garrison in the years 1891-1895, and it is typical of the Baltic Russian Orthodox church buildings. The inspiration is Byzantine, and the decoration includes the traditional and dominant five domes. However, there are also atypical eclectic elements such as the Corinthian columns on the facade.
The 50-metre-high church was temporarily arranged as an art museum during the Soviet Union, but it has now been transferred to religious purposes in the Catholic church, where it is dedicated to the archangel Michael and is therefore also called Archangel Michael’s Church/Šv. Arkangelo Mykolo church.
This beautiful mansion was the presidential palace in Lithuania in the period between World War I and World War II. The building was built in 1846 as a noble residence. In 1866, a garden was laid out at the house, which in 1876 was bought by the Russian government to house the local governor.
When Lithuania proclaimed its independence in 1918, the house became the property of the state, and as Vilnius was under Polish rule, Kaunas became the temporary capital. On that occasion, this particular mansion was designated as the presidential residence; a status it had until 1940.
During the Soviet era, the mansion was first used as a cinema and later as the seat of a teachers’ organization.
At the beginning of the 1990s, statues of the three Lithuanian presidents who lived here were erected in the palace’s garden; Antanas Smetona, Aleksandras Stulginskis and Kazys Grinius.
Today, the mansion is set up as a section of the art museum that bears the name of the painter and writer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
This is Lithuania’s largest seminary, and it belongs to Kaunas’ Roman Catholic archbishopric. The seminary was founded in 1863 after the Lithuanian-Polish January Uprising of the same year, which resulted in the bishopric of the area being moved from Varniai to Kaunas.
In the later part of the 19th century, the seminary was partly taught in Lithuanian, and book smuggling of Lithuanian books also took place. The Lithuanian-language newspaper Lietuva also saw the light of day as one of the examples of the growing Lithuanian consciousness in the Russian tsarist empire.
During the First World War, the building complex served as a military hospital, and during the Soviet era, the number of study places was severely reduced. However, it continued as the country’s only active seminary, which it is with renewed vigor today.
Today you can see and enjoy the place’s fine houses, which form a cozy environment in the old town. Small gardens are located between the seminary buildings.
This museum is considered among the most important in Lithuania, whose history is depicted here from the earliest times to the modern republic that characterizes the country today. The museum opened in 1936, and many different known effects are exhibited here; among others the plane wreck of Lituanica, which in 1933 was flown from New York towards Kaunas by two Lithuanians. The plane crashed en route in Germany.
Outside the museum stand three monuments; The Statue of Liberty/Laisvės Statula, erected in 1989, the monument to the country’s independence from 1990, the Nepamikkustos Paminklas, and the bronze statue of Vytautas the Great, who in his time established Lithuanian power. Vytautas rests on four fallen soldiers from the surrounding lands. Here you will also find the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where an eternal flame burns.
The monumental museum building was built by the architect Dubeneckis and is one of the city’s most significant buildings from recent times.
This Gothic church was built in the early 15th century. It got its name from the founder, Vytautas the Great, who erected it as a thank you to the Virgin Mary for saving Vytautas’ life during the defeat at the Battle of Vorskla on 12 August 1399.
In 1812, the church was burned by French troops and later restored. In 1845 it was closed as a Catholic church and it reopened as an Orthodox church instead. At the beginning of the 20th century, the barracks were set up here, and for a time the building was used as a warehouse. In 1919 it became Catholic again.
The church is beautifully situated on the banks of the river Nemunas, and its interior is a simple and quite stylish Gothic church room. The Lithuanian writer Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas is buried in the crypt.
Ąžuolynas is a 63-hectare park located immediately east of Kaunas city centre. Historically, it is planted with oak trees, and you find them up to 300 years old. However, there are also many other trees to see.
The large green area is a remnant of a very large area of oak forest, which was otherwise felled in the 1300s and 1500s to provide timber for, for example, buildings. Today it is a very popular place among the city’s inhabitants.
A number of facilities for sports and culture are located in Ąžuolynas. Among other things, you will find the outdoor stage Dainų slėnis, which is the setting for song festivals. Approximately in the middle of the park you can see a large bronze statue of the bison bull Stumbras, which is the city’s symbol. At the eastern end of the park is Kaunas Zoo (Radvilėnų plentas 21).
In this department of the national art museum in the city, you can see, among other things, works by the artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, who is considered by many to be the most famous Lithuanian artist of all time.
Čiurlionis painted around 300 works and composed approximately 250 pieces of music; most of his paintings can be seen in this museum. Čiurlionis’ created his works around the year 1900 and was at the same time inspired by and inspired currents of this time such as fin de siècle and art nouveau.
Vilniaus gatvė is the name of the old road that leads east from Kaunas’ old town towards the current Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Most of the buildings were originally made of wood, which can still be seen in various places, but they were gradually replaced by larger stone houses.
Today, the street is a string of beautiful buildings that together form a particularly beautiful and harmonious street, which you should take a walk through when you are in Kaunas.
This funicular is named after the top station on Den Grønne Bakke/Žaliakalnis. The small track was built by German Curt Rudolph Transportanlagen in 1931 as the first in Lithuania.
The track runs 142 meters upwards from Kaunas’ central district. From the opening on 5 August 1931, only one passenger car ran, while the counterweight was a ballast car. In the years 1935-1937, the track was expanded; among other things with two new passenger cars.
Kaunas’ Town Hall Square is the center of the old town. It was built from 1542 and is a very cozy space in the city. The square is widely used by the city’s inhabitants for both quiet strolls and as a meeting place.
The dominant buildings are the city’s town hall and the Jesuit church, and around Rotušės aikštė there is also a strip of German merchant houses from the 16th-17th centuries. You can also find a literature museum, Maironio lietuvių litiųs muziejus (Rotušės aikštė 13), which is dedicated to the popular Lithuanian writer Maironis, who lived here in the period 1910-1932.
Perkūno Namas is one of Lithuania’s most beautiful secular Gothic houses. It was originally built by merchants from the Hanseatic League, who used it as their seat in the city in the years 1440-1532. The building style, with niche-rich gables, is typical of buildings in the Hanseatic cities.
In the 16th century, the house was sold to Jesuit monks, who furnished a chapel in the house in 1643. In the same century, the monks built the nearby Jėzuitų church (Rotušės aikštė 7).
However, Perkūno Namas came to be in ruins, and part of the original double building was demolished in the 18th century. It was therefore rebuilt in the 19th century, where it was initially set up as a school and theatre.
Later in the 19th century, it was named after the Baltic thunder god Perkūnas, which naturally became the House of Thunder/Perkūno Namas. The reason was that a picture of Perkūnas was found on one of the walls of the building.
For a period from 1928 and again since 1991, the place has belonged to the Jesuits, and a museum for the Polish-Lithuanian poet Adam Mickiewicz has now been set up here, among other things. Mickiewicz was a transfer in Kaunas and in precisely Perkūno Namas.
The Kaunas Music Theater was established in 1891 and the first performance took place the following year. The theater was built in an elegant style and has a beautiful neo-baroque exterior.
When Kaunas was the country’s capital in the years between World War I and II, the theater became the country’s leading venue for drama, ballet and opera. In 1948, the ballet and opera were moved to Vilnius, and then this theater was set up as a musical theater. Today, operas can once again be found on the venue’s programme.
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