Kaunas

Kaunas is Lithuania’s second-largest city, located where the Nemunas and Neris rivers meet. It served as Lithuania’s temporary capital between the world wars.

Kaunas Old Town: The historic core of Kaunas, centered on its medieval castle and the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris. Its streets and monuments preserve the city’s medieval and early modern past.
Nemunas: The longest river in Lithuania, flowing through the country to the Curonian Lagoon. Its course made the Kaunas confluence a natural transport and settlement hub.
Lithuanian independence: The establishment and restoration of Lithuania as an independent state, proclaimed in 1918 and restored in 1990. Kaunas became the main center of Lithuanian government during the interwar independence period.
Vilnius: The capital and largest city of Lithuania, located in the country’s southeast. Vilnius is Kaunas’s national counterpart and the capital it temporarily replaced.
Kaunas Castle: A medieval castle at the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris, now a landmark in Kaunas. The castle marks the strategic river junction around which the city developed.
Neris: A river flowing through Belarus and Lithuania that joins the Nemunas at Kaunas. Its meeting with the Nemunas defines Kaunas’s distinctive geographic setting.
Vilnius Region: A historically contested territory around Vilnius, claimed by Lithuania and Poland during the interwar period. Polish control of Vilnius explains why Lithuania governed from Kaunas.
Klaipėda: A port city on Lithuania’s Baltic coast and the country’s third-largest city. Its maritime role contrasts with Kaunas’s inland position at a major river junction.
Kaunas Modernism: An interwar architectural movement represented by modernist buildings constructed in Kaunas, especially during its years as Lithuania’s temporary capital. Its buildings express the rapid growth of the temporary capital in the 1920s and 1930s.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania: A medieval and early modern European state that at its height encompassed much of Eastern Europe. Kaunas developed within this state’s political and trading networks.

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