Where to Stay in Kaunas, Kaunas County

What is Kaunas known for?

Kaunas is known for a compact Old Town that opens onto the long promenade of Laisvės alėja. Kaunas Castle guards the river confluence. The pedestrian avenue runs east into the 19th-century New Town, lined with cafes and shops, past Kaunas Cathedral Basilica and the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum with its collection of national painting.

The Freedom Monument marks the era when the city served as the country's capital. That interwar chapter still shapes its look.

What are the main landmarks in Kaunas?

The main landmarks in Kaunas stretch from the river confluence to the modern hill. Kaunas Castle guards the Old Town tip. Kaunas Cathedral Basilica anchors the medieval square.

The Gothic Church of Vytautas the Great stands close to the water. Beyond the centre, the ring of Kaunas Fortress and its outlying Seventh Fort recall the city's guarded past, while the Vytautas the Great War Museum and the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum share a garden with the Freedom Monument. The modernist Christ's Resurrection Church crowns the rise above it all.

What is the history of Kaunas?

Kaunas grew at the meeting of two rivers, a defensive site that carried its first stronghold by the founding of Kaunas Castle in 1361. The town became the seat of Kaunas County within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and thrived as a river-trade port. Merchants raised its stone core.

The Gothic Church of Vytautas the Great and Kaunas Cathedral Basilica date from those early centuries, when the Old Town filled the wedge between the waters and Kaunas Castle held the point. Under the Russian Empire the city gained the vast belt of Kaunas Fortress, whose outlying Seventh Fort still ring the modern edge. Its greatest change came when Lithuania made Kaunas its capital between the two world wars, a period that filled the New Town with bold buildings and raised both the Freedom Monument and the domed Christ's Resurrection Church.

The M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum and the Vytautas the Great War Museum date from that confident era. Kaunas kept its interwar character long after the capital moved away.

Where is Kaunas?

Kaunas sits at the confluence of two rivers in Kaunas County, on the edge of the Sūduva region. The land rises from the water. Kaunas Castle holds the low point of the wedge where the streams join, and the New Town spreads onto the terrace above along Laisvės alėja.

Wooded hills frame the valley, and the domed Christ's Resurrection Church crowns one of them over the roofs of Kaunas.

What is the climate of Kaunas?

Kaunas has a temperate climate with cold, snowy winters and warm summers. Ice edges the two rivers below Kaunas Castle in the coldest months. Green returns slowly in spring.

By high summer the wooded hills around the valley and the terrace along Laisvės alėja fill with long light, while autumn thins the leaves and brings low river mist to the confluence beneath the Old Town of Kaunas.

How do you get to Kaunas?

Kaunas is served by air, rail, and road within Kaunas County. An airport lies outside the city, and trains and coaches connect the centre across Lithuania. The station sits a short way from the Old Town.

From there it is a brief walk or ride to the promenade of Laisvės alėja and to Kaunas Castle at the river meeting, the two points around which the centre of Kaunas orients itself.