Kaunas In Lithuania: 5 Things To Do There
The second largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, Kaunas has been named the European Capital of Culture in 2022. To celebrate this title, we have listed for you 5 things to do in this Lithuanian city.
1- Take a walk in the old town
If you arrive in Kaunas from the train station, take Freedom Avenue, a pedestrian promenade lined with stores, cafes and restaurants to Vilniaus Street.
The Vilniaus Street is the main street of the old town. With its cobblestones, colorful houses and crowded terraces, this street is very picturesque and popular with tourists.
Indeed, it passes several noteworthy monuments, including the former presidential palace and St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in Lithuania.
Don't hesitate to go in because this cathedral is more impressive on the inside than on the outside! It has a rich baroque style interior decoration dating back to 1771.
Vilniaus Street also provides access to the main square of the city, where the old town hall and the old market are located.
From there you can see Kaunas Castle, built at the confluence of two rivers, the Niemen and the Neris.
2- Visit the Devil's Museum
The city of Kaunas is home to several small and original museums, but the most intriguing is undoubtedly The Devil's Museum.
This small museum traces over 3 rooms Lithuanian mythology related to the Devil.
You can see a collection of statues with explanations, but also amazing representations of Hitler and Stalin as devils!
If you like unusual museums, it would be a shame to miss this visit because the entrance fee is really modest.
3- Discover a unique modernist architecture
Kaunas was the capital of Lithuania between 1920 and 1939, when the city of Vilnius was still part of Poland.
From this interwar period, the city has preserved a modernist architecture that is its trademark.
At that time, official buildings were intended to be symbols of a free and modern Lithuania.
During your stay in the city, you can thus admire:
- the former central post office
- the dairy cooperative called the Milk Center
- the Romuva cinema
- the officers' mess
- the basilica of the resurrection of Christ.
These monuments are the most notable examples among many characteristic buildings of modernist architecture.
4- Take the funicular
There are two funiculars that provide a beautiful view of the city: Zaliakalnis funicular and Aleksota funicular.
These funiculars bear witness to the modernization of local infrastructure and the rapid growth of the city in the 1930s.
Today, they are very popular with tourists as they provide a breathtaking view of downtown Kaunas and the Old Town.
5- Enjoy the festivities in 2022
Since Kaunas is the European Capital of Culture in 2022, the city has planned to transform itself into a gigantic cultural festival over the next twelve months.
Lithuania's second largest city will officially launch the festivities program on January 22, 2022 at 8:22 pm.
Nearly 1,000 events are planned throughout the year, including more than 40 festivals, 60 exhibitions, 250 concerts and 250 art performances.
Among the highlights of this cultural year, three weekends will be dedicated to the trilogy of contemporary Kaunas myth:
- Confusion from January 19 to 23, 2022
- the Confluence from May 20 to 22, 2022
- the Contract from November 25 to 27, 2022
If you want to understand what these names refer to, you just have to go there!
The year 2022 is the perfect opportunity to discover this destination which is the hometown of Jurgis Maciunas, the creator of the Fluxus avant-garde movement in the 1960s.
