30 Best Tourist Attractions in Kaunas, Lithuania

January 17, 2020 by Amy M. Leave a Comment

Ninth Fort

Lithuania’s dark 20th-century background is poignantly explained, 7km north of Kaunas. Begin from the sombre, church-like gallery using striking stained glass and displays detailing Lithuania’s suffering under the Soviets and the Nazis. Subsequently continue uphill to the Holocaust museum as well as the WWI-era fort — a hard-labour prison in the early 20th century along with also a center of torture and mass killings throughout WWII.

MK Čiurlionis National Museum of Art

One of Lithuania’s oldest and greatest galleries, Kaunas’ top art museum (founded 1921) is your place to familiarize yourself with all the dreamlike paintings of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911), among the nation’s biggest artists and composers. Elsewhere in the big gallery are modern sculpture displays, Lithuanian religious and folk art, 16th- to 20th-century European works as well as Lithuanian landscapes and portraits by the 1900s to 1940s.

Sugihara House

Kaunas-based Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara (1900–86) saved around 6000 Jewish resides between 1939 and 1940, issuing transit visas to twenty-six Jews who faced being pressured to Soviet citizenship. After the Soviets annexed Lithuania and arranged each of consulates be closed he requested for a brief extension. Dubbed’Japan’s Schindler’, he disobeyed orders for 29 times by registering 300 visas daily, and handed the postage into a Jewish refugee if he abandoned. Sugihara House tells his life story.

Museum of Devils

This museum is dedicated to the Devil, Lucifer, Satan, the fallen angel, the seducer, the cajoler, together with over 3000 statuettes, carvings, masks and other pictures, gathered over the decades from landscape artist Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876–1966). There is a light-hearted quest of the Horned One in a variety of mythologies, and a look at parties held to push darkness and bad, from Walpurgis Night and Shrovetide into Halloween.

Kiemo Galerija

Artist Vytenis Jakas moved to the courtyard over a decade ago and turned it into an ever-evolving art endeavor, producing murals and moving on partitions the photographs of Jewish households that lived here before WWII. The’Stick Your Memory’ wall invites you to join in and give a sentimental knick-knack into the chaotic yet joyous collage.

Choral Synagogue

Built in 1871, the only functioning synagogue of the who lived since 1941, as well as among the very few remnants of Kaunas’ once-strong Jewish neighborhood, this is a remarkable dark-wood and golden bimah. Outside there is a memorial to 1600 kids murdered at the Ninth Fort. It is ideal to call ahead in the event that you would like to see.

Pažaislis Monastery

Constructed by Camaldolese monks at the 17th century, this spectacular baroque monastery is located 9km east of fundamental Kaunas, on a promontory jutting into the Kauno marios (Kaunas Sea). Given to the Russian Orthodox sequence by Tsar Alexander in 1831, it is sumptuous if marginally run-down affair using a 50m-high cupola and lavish Venetian interior created from black and pink Polish marble. On the assumptions is Monte Pacis, among Lithuania’s best fine dining restaurants.

The monastery has had a chequered history, getting a psychiatric hospital at the Soviet era, prior to visiting its Catholic roots in 1990. It is Ideal to visit during the Pažaislis Music Festival, between June and August.

House of Perkūnas

With elaborate arches and turrets rippling out of the brick facade, this late-15th-century mansion is a treasure of Kaunas’ late-Gothic architecture. Constructed by merchants of the Hanseatic League, its inside is set out to elicit the noble lifestyles of the past: chandeliers, dining tables and also a library which has a little exhibition specializing in 19th-century Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz. The magnificent house is known for its thunder god Perkūnas, whose likeness was found during renovations in 1818. Add $1 for a guided tour.

Lietūkis Garage Massacre Memorial

This little memorial at the courtyard marks the place where, on June 27, 1941, during the very first days of the Nazi occupation of this city, Lithuanian’patriots’ wearing the white armbands of this Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) murdered 70 or so Jewish passers-by, by beating them to death using crowbars and hammering them along with the insertion of high pressure water hoses to various orifices till they burst. The scene was attended with a cheering crowd of onlookers.

Town Hall

Old Town’s tallest tower (53m) climbs from Kaunas’ Town Hall, an elegant white layer-cake of a structure. Constructed from the mid-16th century, the hallway has served as a theater, a magazine, palace and prison through recent years. Nowadays it’s largely used for official occasions, even though it’s also a favorite photo-op for people stopping from the tourist office indoors.

Open-Air Museum of Lithuania

The open-air museum includes re-created 18th- and 19th-century villages representing Lithuania’s main areas (Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija and Lithuania Minor). Potters, weavers and joiners show their crafts at the memorial workshop and, although the indoor displays closed for the winter months, tours of the park could be reserved during the year. The memorial is currently in Rumšiškės, 25km east of Kaunas, about 2km off the Kaunas–Vilnius street.

Kaunas Photography Gallery

There is always an intriguing temporary display on in this gallery, for example as Integration, an intriguing juxtaposition between vague, dimly lit photographic pictures of Remigijus Treigys and abstract, daring explosions of color by Eimutis Markūnas.

St Michael the Archangel Church

The Soviets turned into this blue-domed neo-Byzantine church, which matches the skies so radically at the eastern end of Laisvės alėja, to some stained-glass museum. Constructed for the Russian Orthodox faith in 1893, St Michael’s has been sentenced to Catholic worshippers in 1991. The church catacombs are converted to the Kaunas Museum for the Blind — enabling people to experience a sightless world.

Maironis Lithuanian Literary Museum

Even travelers unenthused by turn-of-the-20th-century literature will be enchanted with this museum devoted to Lithuanian luminary Maironis (aka Jonas Mačiulis). The museum is within a superbly manicured 18th-century mansion, purchased and supplied by Maironis in 1909. Highlights include the rococo Red Room (really baby blue) along with the Great Dining Room, gloriously adorned with traditional heraldry left in bold picture artwork.

Christ’s Resurrection Basilica

There is an austerity, simplicity and girth for the white-washed concrete cathedral, constructed over a span of 70 years from 1934 onwards, although its Functionalist style divides view. A Nazi newspaper warehouse, a radio mill under the Soviets, it was eventually recorded in 2004. Just take the staircase ($1.20) or the elevator ($2.40) into the upstairs patio for good views of the city.

St Francis Xavier Church & Monastery

The southern aspect of Rotušės aikštė is dominated with rosy-pink late-Baroque facade of this St Francis Xavier Church, faculty and Jesuit monastery complicated. Peek in the twin-towered church, built between 1666 and 1720, and grow up to the viewing stage to get a bird’s-eye vantage point over Kaunas’ Old Town.

Vytautas Church

Known in full as Vytautas the Great Church of the Accession of the Holy Virgin Mary, this red-brick church is among the Earliest in Kaunas. Constructed by Franciscans from the early 15th century, it had been used from the Orthodox church and Napoleon (within an ammunition shop ) prior to being relegated to Catholicism in 1990.

Povilas Stulga Lithuanian Folk Music Instruments Museum

This museum indicates that any raw material could be turned into a musical tool. Housed at a 16th-century Gothic home, the lovely 7000-piece collection contains bone and wood flutes, strange reed pipes, three-string cellos, and equally fundamental and elaborately carved kanklės (zithers).

Medicine & Pharmaceutical History Museum

Dating back to the 1930s, this enjoyable museum details the advancement of health science in Lithuania within the decades. Additionally, there are expositions on Lithuanian and Siberian folk medication along with a rebuilt 19th-century apothecary, full with ceramic vessels and clay jars.

Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery

This art museum three floors relies on the personal collection of Mykolas Žilinskas, however, is currently controlled by the National Čiurlionis Art Museum. The collection is most powerful on European art from the 17th to the 20th centuries also boasts Lithuania’s just Rubens.

Field of Sacrifice

The area of Sacrifice — a title inscribed on paving slabs in the front of this City Garden — would be a dreadful tribute into the 19-year-old Kaunas enthusiast Romas Kalanta, that, in 1972, set himself alight in protest in Soviet ruler.

Aleksotas Funicular

This historical funicular in the southern end of Aleksoto Tiltas (Aleksoto Bridge) goes from 1935 and also the viewing platform in the top devotes excellent rooftop views of Old Town (greatest in the morning).

Kaunas Museum for the Blind

Even the catacombs of St Michael the Archangel Church are put up to allow you to experience a brief spell for a man without sight.

Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum

With over 250,000 specimens spread across three floors, this museum covers the animal kingdom by the imposing taxidermy mammals (bison, muskox, large cats, hippos, primates) to diverse birdlife, and also a paleontological section filled with mammoth remains. It was established in 1919 from Tadas, a famed Lithuanian naturalist, along with the screens are comprehensive and well organized, however, you leave with a wistful sense that you would rather have seen such animals alive and from the wild.

Presidential Palace of Lithuania

This handsome 19th-century construction has been the seat of government for the Republic of Lithuania between the wars. Restored to its original splendor, it currently houses a display on separate Lithuania including historical photos, presents given to previous presidents, ranges of household silver along with presidential awards. Statues of prior presidents additionally stud the palace garden.

Sts Peter & Paul Cathedral

With its tower, that this church owes much into baroque renovation, particularly indoors, but the first 15th-century Gothic form of its own windows stays. The largest Gothic building in Lithuania, it was likely founded by Vytautas about 1410 and today has nine altars. The tomb of Maironis stands out the south east wall.

Vytautas the Great War Museum

Founded from the Lithuanian Armythis tradition retains exhibitions about the history of weapons, Lithuanian army background, the span of the Grand Duchy and much more. Of special fascination is that the wreckage of this Lituanica, where Steponas Darius and Stanislovas Girėnas expired while trying to fly nonstop from New York into Kaunas, at 1933.

Kaunas Castle

A rebuilt tower, segments of wall and portion of a moat are all that remain of 14th-century Kaunas Castle, a significant bastion from Teutonic strikes around that the city originally grew. There is an exibition about the background of this castle, even a rebuilt dungeon, in addition to the chance to test your hand in old Lithuanian matches and archery.

Statue of Maironis

Maironis was the pen name of Kaunas poet and priest Jonas Mačiulis (1862–1932) whose writings helped awaken the nation’s civic longings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stalin banned his functions.

Jan Zwartendijk Memorial

This untitled setup by Giny Vos, introduced at 2018, is a tradition to this Dutch diplomat Jan Zwartendijk, that rescued tens of thousands of Jewish lives during WWII together with Chiune Sugiharaalong with his Japanese counterpart.

23 Best Tourist Attractions in Vilnius, Lithuania

December 8, 2019 by Linda J. Leave a Comment

Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

If you only find a single museum in Vilnius, make it this one. On a site that’s been settled since the 4th century AD stands that the most recent at a procession of palaces, destroyed differently remodelled and rebuilt. The palace, built for its grand dukes, has been renovated to home an atmospheric museum of history and art. Visitors with several hours can go for entrance, accessing four’paths’ through Lithuanian history choose even two or one.

Vilnius Cathedral

Stately Vilnius Cathedral, divorced from the freestanding belfry, can be a national emblem and the town’s most instantly recognisable construction. Known in full as the Cathedral of St Stanislav and St Vladislav, this columned neoclassical cathedral occupies a place originally used for the worship of Perkūnas, the Lithuanian thunder god.

Register ahead of tour the crypts, the final resting place of several prominent Lithuanians including Vytautas the Great (1350–14-30 ).

Vilnius University

Founded through the Catholic Counter Reformation in 1579, Vilnius University was run by Jesuits for just two decades. It became one of learning, and also the university lived shut-down re-branding under Soviet ruler and closure by the Nazis. Its spectacular architectural outfit comprises a bell tower, baroque fresco-laden, courtyard and church hall, most which are open for visitors.

Museum of Genocide Victims

The former headquarters of the KGB (and before the Gestapo, Polish occupiers and Tsarist judiciary) houses a museum specializing in thousands of members of the Lithuanian immunity have been murdered, imprisoned or imprisoned by the Soviet Union by WWII until the 1960s. Wooden annexes Back lit photographs and also a layout that is disorienting sharpen the impact of horrors summarized in graphic detail. Most unsettling is the descent to the prison cells, and also yet one cushioned to muffle noises.

Cathedral Square

Katedros aikštė buzzes with local life. From the 19th century markets and fairs were held here and there conducted a moat around so that ships can sail to the cathedral door, what’s the perimeter of the square. Over the moat were towers and walls, the sole remaining part of which is that the 57m-tall belfry near the Palace’s western end.

In front of the entry to the Royal Palace, at the eastern end, is the equestrian statue of Gediminas, built on an old pagan site.

Tolerance Centre

Some of the main divisions of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, the Tolerance Centre is a performance space, and a tradition of culture and Jewish history. Its multimedia exposition concerning the Holocaust has been framed from the point of view of a young child, along with stories of defiance and survival have been told. Displays, from picture art to instruments, are arranged over its own flooring.

Cathedral Bell Tower

Climb the creaky stairs to the freestanding belfry of all Vilnius Cathedral, once part of this city’s 13th-century defences. Towering 57m significant, it’s certainly one of the city’s earliest brick buildings in addition to Vilnius’ most famed landmark. Bells dating back to the 15 th century dangle at the display space, however the reasons to navigate stairwells and the narrow lands will be the views across the metropolis. In 5pm, hear the bells ring for several moments.

Sts Johns’ Church

The Complete title is’Church of St Johns, St John the Baptist and St John the Apostle and Evangelist’, however’Sts Johns’ (plural) will do well. Founded in 1387, it predates the 16th century university within which it’s situated, even though present structure was built after an 18thcentury fire. Its campanile contains a Foucault’s Pendulum displaying the earth’s spinning, and could be the tallest structure in Old Town. Views from the top are equally all magnificent.

Užupis Art Incubator

One of two divisions of the Užupis Republic’s powerhouse, the Galera shows temporary exhibitions and invites artists from around the world to take part in a conversation about artwork. Outside the gallery, the adjoining garden and the river bank are open-air galleries created by talent from Užupis and farther afield. There exists a grand piano and also rock cairns on the river, a giant horse and stone sculpture over the path, and installations.

MO Museum

Opened in October 2018, this assemblage of contemporary art and photography would be the country’s first museum. A union of angles, lustrous white and glass plaster has been designed by visionary Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind Berlin’s Jewish Museum. Approximately 5000 20th-century artworks are constructed within, freshened by events that are occasional and exhibitions.

Mindaugas

This landmark depicts early unifier of these Lithuanian tribes from the first king of the country and the century.

Antakalnis Cemetery

In this leafy suburb, little-visited by tourists, Antakalnis Cemetery is the last resting place of locals and luminaries . Art nouveau brutalist and modernist headstones give the cemetery, a of the center, the feel of an open-air sculpture gallery. A sculpture of the Madonna memorialiss those murdered by Soviet forces on 13. A Bolt or taxi service from the railway station costs around $6.

Gediminas Castle & Museum

With its hilltop location above the junction of the Neris and Vilnia Rivers, Gediminas Castle will be the last of buildings inhabiting this site since Neolithic times and a collection of settlements. This brick version, built by Grand Duke Vytautas in 15th century, harbours a engaging museum about the city with floors elaborating on centuries of war weaponry and history. The highlight is your panorama of Vilnius from the roof.

Gates of Dawn

By the standing of five portals which were built in to the city 24, the boundary of oldtown is indicated. An appropriately grand Solution to enter Old Town is that the tradition of Mary the Mother of Mercy, home the’Vilnius Madonna’. Framed in silver, this painting of the Virgin Mary brings pilgrims from across Europe.

National Museum of Lithuania

This broad museum (in the newest Arsenal) exhibits art and artefacts from Lithuanian lifetime from Neolithic times to the present moment. Historical history is shown in 2 nd millennium BC arrow-heads and 7th century tomb hauls (beating is not necessarily good), while the lifestyles of well-to-do Lithuanians of recent centuries have been discharged with velvet-lined sleds and elaborately painted furniture. The highlight would be that the folk customs room, replete with decor, sheets and painted wooden spans.

Presidential Palace

Vilnius’ Palace at the 16th century , that this ancient edifice’s Bishops now houses the president and chancellery. It gained its current Russian empire style early in the 19th century, and has been used both by Napoleon (during his advance on Moscow) and his Russian adversary, General Mikhail Kutuzov (chasing him back to Paris). Watch the changing of the guard every day at 6pm, and also the flag-hoisting ceremony on Sunday at that time. Visits by guided tour (in Lithuanian, plus English in summer) has to be reserved in advance.

St Michael the Archangel Church

This expansive chuch, assembled by the Sapiega family, today houses a wonderful museum of art. The building itself, with alabaster statuary, coloured-marble high altar and its Gothic nave, can be an uncommon instance of structure in Vilnius. The exhibition includes religious art, liturgical boats and manuscripts, and a monstrance and reliquaries from Vilnius Cathedral.

Three Crosses

Crosses were erected in the 17th century, in memory of a set of monks martyred by pagans. The recent crosses replace three bulldozed by the Soviets; the remains is seen below the group. Walk up the hill from T Kosciuskos gatvė, also enjoy fabulous views of town, especially good here at sunset.

Holocaust Exhibition

The’greenhouse’ exhibits the unvarnished truth behind the destruction of Lithuania’s community. The exhibits — heart-wrenching eye witness accounts, documents and mostly photographs — chart the 600-year record of Jews from Lithuania before WWII, when 90 percent of the country’s 200,000 Jews were murdered by Nazis and their collaborators. This profoundly troubling chapter of history is vital to understanding Vilnius. Many items on display were donated by survivors and victims’ families.

Kenessa

West of Jasinskio gatvė around the Neris River is the kenessa, a traditional Karaite (sect of all Turkic Jews) Victorian home, built in 1911. It’s one of three kenessas surviving in Lithuania.

Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit

The facade that is peachy provides an enthralling original impression but there’s a power atmosphere inside the chief Russian Orthodox church of Lithuania. The refuge was provided a dazzling make over at the 18th centurynote the iconostasis with jewel tones and golden filigree. At front of the altar lie that on the bodies of three 14th-century martyrs, Sts Anthony, both their feet churns out under shrouds, Ivan and Eustachius.

Museum of Applied Art

Even the Old Arsenal, built from the 16th century and restored in the 1980s, houses exhibits and a permanent collection showcasing 15 th – to 19thcentury Lithuanian holy art. After being hidden in the walls by soldiers in 1655, A number of pieces were discovered in Vilnius Cathedral in 1985. When these have been finally displayed into the planet, because of fear they’d be captured by the Soviets, the works, valued at $11 million, stayed a secret until 1998.

Choral Synagogue

Vilnius’ Jewish communities along with 100 synagogues gave the city the nickname’Jerusalem of the north’ before WWII. The Choral Synagogue is Vilnius’ sole surviving Jewish temple. The surface is also an intriguing blend of contemporary and oriental modern styles that are Romanesque; ring the buzzer to enter and view its vaulted interior and elaborate Torah ark.

12 Best Places to Visit in Lithuania

February 8, 2019 by Linda J. Leave a Comment

Best Places to Visit Lithuania

Lithuania is the southernmost of the 3 Baltic countries which also consist of Estonia and Latvia, plus it had been the very first Soviet republic to declare its autonomy. Lithuania is its particular tourism numbers up to that with above one million visitors, and also still a unique destination.

Best Places Lithuania

Lithuania Vilnius

Vilnius’ town isn’t merely the greatest city in Lithuania, it is the administrative center. Vilnius home is called by just over 1 / 2 of a thousand people. This was because he passed in 23, Napoleon who imputed into this town since the Jerusalem of the North. Many believe Vilnius to be among those capitals of European civilization.

Lithuania Kaunas

The next biggest city in the nation is that of Kaunas. Situated where the Nemunas Rivers and the Neris unite, the perspectives around Kaunas are not anything less than scenic. The region now, where the city breaks were occupied for millennia. There are lots of nice examples of design dating back to tens of thousands.

Lithuania Birzai

Birzai is among the oldest cities of Lithuania, located from the country’s area and dating back to over five years. The town is located at the intersection of also the Agluona River and this Asascia River, also around the beaches of Lake Kiluciai along with Lake Širvėna. It’s just a culturally rich area with different gorgeous temples, for example, Evangelical Reformed Church St. John’s the Baptist Church.

Lithuania Sventoji

The resort town of Sventoji is known as the little sister of Palanga, and also the attention here is on family fun. Visitors may spend the afternoon drifting Kopu Street, meandering off to Sventosios along with Jurors roads to peruse the tourism area, also have lunch or breakfast before going to Monkey Bridge. This suspension bridge spans the Sventoji River linking the shore and Kopu Street.

Lithuania Anyksciai

Anyksciai is just actually a historical and stunning town with a wealth of beaches and attractions museums, and also exceptional places. Even the Angel Museum, also a center for the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, the Arabian Museum, the American Forest Museum, and also art are great choices for observing the city and its culture. Tracking decks are located providing views of Lake Rubikiai woods, and monuments and churches.

Lithuania Druskininkai

From Lithuania’s southern section, you’ll discover the city of Druskininkai. Located within the estuary of this Ratnyčia River, near the Nemunas River, the town of Druskininkai has become a popular spa city in the united states. Every year men and women earn their way into Druskininkai’s curative spas.

Lithuania Utena

You’ll locate Utena located in the northwestern portion of the country’s town. The city was occupied for centuries, however, has been known for Utena. The town has experienced a massive infrastructure reconstruction to adapt the huge sums of people which produce their solution.

Lithuania Klaipeda

Klaipeda is the next biggest city in Lithuania, offering people a unique mixture of old-world charm and modernity. This Prussian funding has claimed a lot of its design with something portion plus the Old Town of the red brick castle.

Lithuania Palanga

Palanga is just a resort village featuring just two personalities; while in winter it functions as calm through summertime it’s a lively party city. It comprises just with sand deserts and pine woods serving as its background. This community of houses and taxis maybe around the smallish side, but it also packs a huge punch with its attractions along with its people’s vibrancy. Top attractions include the Amber Museum, the Amber Processing Gallery, Antanas Moncys House Museum, Dr. Jono Sliupas Memorial House, the Exile & Resistance Museum, and also a Botanical Park.

Lithuania Plunge

The plunge is beefy Lithuania’s heritage heart. Visitors can get to visit 40 temples, six all-natural landscapes, 2-9 sculptures, and sculptures, and also threw stones at the area.

Lithuania Rumsiskes

Rumsiskes is an open-source museum that’s a microcosm of all the history set out at a group of artifacts and buildings of Lithuania. Country life is portrayed via complexes of cities, cities, and farmsteads.

Lithuania Trakai

Trakai could be Lithuania’s jewel. Once the world’s funding, five lakes encircle the town. The capital having wooden structure its castles, and the scenery is juxtaposed against Vilnius that was adjoining. Trakai Castle could be the highlight with the tourism destination.

Lithuania Capital City

Vilnius

Vilnius, is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 570,806 as of 2019.

Where is the Lithuania

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