Metravel city quest
City Kaunas: free walking route “quest: Lithuania's temporary capital” along the sights. 10 points. Approximately 2 h 30 min. Quests and legends - straight
Most countries have one capital, once and for all. Lithuania had a ‘temporary’ one for twenty years. In 1919, when Polish troops occupied Vilnius, the young republic's government moved to Kaunas — and a provincial Russian fortress city suddenly became the capital of a state. Over the two decades between the wars, ministries, embassies, banks, cafés and whole districts of white Modernist buildings sprang up here. In 2023, UNESCO added ‘Modernist Kaunas: Architecture of Optimism’ to the World Heritage List.
But it all began much earlier, at the meeting of two rivers, the Nemunas and the Neris, where a stone castle stood in the 14th century, bearing the brunt of crusader attacks. Between the castle and Modernism came Hanseatic merchants, Gothic churches, floods, empire and the struggle for freedom. We'll follow that story on foot: from the castle through Town Hall Square and the Old Town to Laisvės Avenue, the main street of the temporary capital.
What to do: 1) Read the story and task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk up to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
This walking route is about four kilometres long, almost entirely along pedestrian streets. We begin at the city's oldest stone landmark — Kaunas Castle.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
This is where Kaunas began. The stone castle at the confluence of the Neris and the Nemunas was built in the middle of the 14th century.
Opening hours: Tue–Fri 10:00–18:00, Sat 10:00–17:00, Sun (1 June–31 August) 10:00–16:00; closed Mondays and public holidays · Ticket: adults 4 €, students and pensioners 2 €, children under 18 and people with disabilities free
A couple of minutes' walk from the castle brings you to Town Hall Square, the drawing room of old Kaunas. Hanseatic merchants traded here; justice was administered, goods were weighed and the city's treasury was kept here too.
Opening hours: Tue–Sat 10:00–18:00, Sun 10:00–16:00; closed Mondays · Ticket: adults 4 €, concessions 2 €, children free
In the corner of the square, where Vilniaus Street begins, stands the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul. Its size is deceptive until you get right up close.
From the cathedral, duck into Aleksoto Street, which leads downhill towards the Nemunas. On your right you'll find Lithuania's most ornate Gothic house — the House of Perkūnas, the country's only surviving residential building in this late ‘Flamboyant’ Gothic style.
Another hundred paces downhill brings you to the Nemunas, in front of the oldest church in Kaunas. According to the Jesuit historian Albertas Kojalavičius-Vijūkas, Vytautas the Great himself built the Church of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary around 1400, in gratitude for his rescue.
Now head back uphill from the river to Vilniaus Street, the city's oldest street, now pedestrianised. Walk east along it without turning off: cobblestones, pre-war signs and cafés.
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri 10:00–17:00, Thu 10:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 11:00–16:00; closed Mondays · Ticket: adults 5 €, university students, school pupils and pensioners 2.50 €
This stop is optional: a short detour from the route, but one of Europe's most heartwarming courtyards. Beyond the Presidential Palace, Vilniaus Street becomes Laisvės Avenue.
Return to the city's main axis. Laisvės Avenue — Freedom Avenue — stretches for 1.6 kilometres, without any cars: a green ribbon of lime trees separates two pedestrian lanes.
Another optional stop — and Lithuania's strangest museum. From the City Garden, head two blocks north to V. Putvinskio Street.
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri 11:00–17:00, Thu 11:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–17:00; closed Mondays · Ticket: adults 8 €, school pupils, university students and pensioners 4 €; free on the last Sunday of the month
Here it is — the white giant you've been walking towards all along the avenue. People in Kaunas simply call the Church of St Michael the Archangel Soboras, and its life story holds the city's entire modern history within one building.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.