Location: 100 km (62 mi) West of Vilnius
Info Center:
Laisves aleja 36
Tel. (37) 323 436
Kaunas - the second largest and most important city in Lithuania, the administrative center of the Kaunas region, in 1919-1940 - the temporary capital of the Republic of Lithuania.
Pilies 17
Tel. (37) 323 436
Open: 10:30am- 1pm Mon- Fri
Laisves Aleja
Vilniaus 1
Tel. (37) 324 093
Service: 7am, 8am, 6pm daily
8am, 9am, 10:30am Sat
8am, 9am, 10:30am, 12pm Sun
Old Town HallRotuses aikste
Devil's MuseumV Putvinskio 64 Tel. (37) 221 587
Vytautas ChurchAleksoto 3 Tel. (37) 203 854 Service: 6pm Tue- Thu 10am, 6pm Sat 10am, 12pm, 6pm Sun
Perkunas HouseAleksoto 6 Tel. (37) 302 994 Open: 10am- 4pm Mon- Fri 11am-1pm Sun |
Church of the Holy TrinityRotuses aikste 22 Tel. (37) 323 734 Service: 10am
Church of Saint GeorgePapilio 9 Tel. (37) 224 659 Service: 6pm Mon- Fri, 10:30am Sun
Mykolas Zilinskas Art GalleryNepriklausomybes 12 Tel. (37) 322 788 Open: 11am- 5pm Tue- Sun
M K Ciurlionis Art MuseumV Putvinskio 55 Tel. (37) 229 475 Open: 11am- 5pm Tue- Sun |
Open: March- Nov 10am- 6pm Wed- Mon, Dec- Feb 10am- 4pm Wed- Sun
Tel. 37 377 715
Entrance Fee: 6 Lt, children 3 Lt, under 7 free
Bus: 35, 23
Name
The name of the city is derived from the Baltic root Kau,
meaning "low, swampy, swampy place" or derived from the Lithuanian name
Kaunas. This surname is still found in Lithuania. Who was Kaunas is
unknown, it is believed that he could be the ruler of the castle. Until
the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1918, the city was called
Kovno or Kovna, the traditional Slavic form of the name.
Story
First mentioned in 1030. It was part of Samogitia. The first mention in
chronicles dates back to 1361, when the brick Kaunas Castle was built.
In 1362 the castle was captured after a siege and destroyed by the
Teutonic Order. It was one of the largest and most important military
victories of the Teutonic Knights in the 14th century against Lithuania.
Kaunas Castle was rebuilt at the beginning of the 15th century.
In 1408, the city received the Magdeburg Rights from Vytautas the Great
and in 1413 became the center of the Kaunas district in the Trakai
Voivodeship. The power of self-government of Kaunas was divided between
three main interconnected institutions: vaitas (mayor), Magistrates (12
people's assessors and 4 burgomasters) and the so-called Bench Court (12
people). Kaunas began to gain fame as it was located at the crossroads
of trade routes and a river port. In 1441 Kaunas joined the Hanseatic
League. A trade representation of the Hansa Office was opened - the only
one in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The city began to play an important
role in the economy of the Baltic Sea region and the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania. The first school, a public hospital, a pharmacy were built in
the city, its importance as a center of trade with Western Europe and a
river port grew. In 1657 and 1708 plague raged in Kaunas. In 1731 and
1732 fires destroyed part of the city.
XVII-XVIII centuries, the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania fell into decay. As a result of the Third
Partition of the Commonwealth in 1795, the city became part of the
Russian Empire. The economic situation gradually improved, but in 1812,
during the invasion of Russia, Napoleon's army passed through Kaunas and
the city suffered serious damage.
Kovno Governorate with its
center in Kovno (Kaunas) was formed in 1843. In 1862, a railway linking
the Russian and German empires was built, making Kaunas an important
railway hub. To protect the western borders of the Russian Empire, the
Kovno fortress was built.
In 1863, after the unsuccessful
Polish-Lithuanian January Uprising against the Russian Empire, the
residence of the Bishop of Samogitia, Motejus Valančius, was moved from
Varniai to Kaunas. Soon the Kaunas Theological Seminary became one of
the centers of the national revival of Lithuania in the era of
Russification. Many of the seminary students were actively involved in
smuggling forbidden Lithuanian books. In 1884, seminary students began
to print the newspaper "Lithuania" (lit. Lietuva) in Lithuanian.
After the First World War in 1919, when the capital Vilnius was annexed
by Poland, Kaunas became the temporary capital of Lithuania. The city
held this status until 1939. The first president of Lithuania, Antanas
Smetona, and all subsequent presidents of the interwar period worked in
the presidential palace in Kaunas.
In 1920, the Constituent
Seimas of Lithuania was assembled in Kaunas, which laid the foundation
for the legislative system of the state. The Seimas adopted a number of
important laws, in particular on land reform, the national currency, and
adopted a new constitution. During independence, Kaunas grew. The city
has been called Little Paris for its rich cultural and academic life,
architecture and widespread cafe culture. The temporary capital had a
Western standard of living with fairly high salaries. At the time,
skilled workers were earning very similar real wages to workers in
Germany, Italy, and France, and Lithuanian industrial production
increased by 160% from 1913 to 1940. Kaunas was the largest city in
Lithuania and grew rapidly. New suburbs were planned and built (in
particular, the Žaliakalnis district), the city expanded from 18 to 40
square kilometers. In 1924, buses began to run, in 1928 a water pipeline
was built, three modern bridges were built across the Neris and Nemunas
rivers. An important role in the development of the city at that time
was played by its burgomaster Jonas Vileišis. As a result, Kaunas has
become an active participant in European urban life.
The city was
also a particularly important center for the Lithuanian Armed Forces. In
January 1919, during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, the Kaunas
Military School was established and began to train soldiers. In May
1919, the Lithuanian State Aviation Plant was founded in the Fred area
to repair and supply the army with military aircraft. In Kaunas, the
production of the Lithuanian military aircraft ANBO began.
During the Second World War, the advanced units of the German troops
entered the city on the evening of June 24, 1941 (they crossed the river
on a ship - the bridge over the Neman was blown up), which had already
been cleared of Soviet troops by the detachments of the Lithuanian
Activist Front (LFA), which raised an uprising in the first day of the
war.
On June 25, the Lithuanians staged a pogrom in Viliyampol
(Slobodka), at least 800 Jews were killed.
Parts of the regular
German army showed up in Kaunas on 25 June. The first order of the
occupying authorities was that it was forbidden to organize an honorary
reception of the German army, no posters, no one can show up on the
street when the first units pass.
On August 1, 1941, the
Lithuanian government, on the orders of the German military commandants,
approved the "Regulations on the Jews", according to which Jews were
ordered to live exclusively in special areas of residence - the ghetto.
In Kaunas, such an area was the suburb of Vilijampole (formerly
Slobodka), where 30 thousand Jews of the Kaunas ghetto were forcibly
settled.
On August 1, 1944, units of the 5th Army of the 3rd
Belorussian Front of the Red Army entered the city. displayed courage
and valor.
After the restoration of Soviet power in Lithuania,
partisan detachments of the Forest Brothers began their activities in
Kaunas and its environs, which were largely suppressed by 1953. On
November 2, 1956, on the Day of All the Dead Faithful, demonstrations of
Lithuanian youth were held in the city, which were of an anti-Soviet
nature, which led to clashes with the police. As a result, the
participants were arrested. On May 14, 1972, 19-year-old Romas Kalanta,
in protest against Soviet rule in Lithuania, committed self-immolation
next to the fountain near the musical theater on Laisves Alley (Freedom;
lit. Laisvės). This caused massive anti-Soviet protests in the city,
which were quickly suppressed.
In the late 1980s, the
anti-communist movement intensified in Kaunas. On June 10, 1988, a local
branch of the Sąjūdis organization was formed, and on October 9 of the
same year, the Lithuanian flag was raised over the tower of the Vytautas
the Great Military Museum (lit. Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus)
(February 16, 1989, on the anniversary of the adoption of the act of
independence of Lithuania In 1918, Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevicius
called for secession from the USSR at a sermon in Kaunas Cathedral for
the first time. about 200 thousand people.
On March 11, 1990,
Lithuania declared independence. During the January events of 1991,
after the occupation of the radio and television buildings in Vilnius by
the Soviet troops, the only Lithuanian television program was broadcast
from Kaunas. On August 31, 1993, the last formations of the
North-Western Group of Forces of the Russian Army left the city.
In 1993, a new coat of arms of Kaunas was approved. The urban economy
has gradually transformed into service sectors such as logistics,
transport, tourism and information technology. In September 1993, Pope
John Paul II visited Kaunas during his visit to Lithuania, celebrating
mass and meeting with youth at the stadium. Darius and Girenas. About 30
thousand people took part in the meeting.
Kaunas-born Vytautas
Landsbergis and Valdas Adamkus became heads of state in 1990 and 1998.
On March 29, 2017, Kaunas was named European Capital of Culture
2022.
The heraldic seal of Kaunas, introduced at the beginning of the 15th
century during the reign of Grand Duke Vytautas (lit. Vytautas), is the
oldest city heraldic seal known in the territory of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania. From the 15th century, a tour was depicted on city official
seals, from the end of the 15th century it was supplemented by a cross.
Since 1843, the emblem of the Kovno province depicted a monument erected
on the town hall square in memory of the Patriotic War of 1812.
On May 2, 1935, the Kaunas City Council approved a coat of arms
depicting a white tour with golden hooves on a purple background, and a
cross between the horns. Since 1969, a coat of arms has been used with a
white bison on a red background. By a decree of the President of the
Republic of Lithuania on June 30, 1993, the historical coat of arms of
the city of Kaunas was restored: on a red shield there is a white round
with a golden cross between the horns.
Kaunas also has a large
coat of arms, which depicts a ship, three golden balls and the Latin
text "Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram". The large coat of arms
refers to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of merchants and sailors, whom
Queen Bona Sforza considered the heavenly guardian of Kaunas.