Kaunas Old Town tour
3 hour private tour of Kaunas Old Town led by a professional local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!
Price: see here
The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.
Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com
A medieval district with impressive churches, cobbled streets, merchant townhouses from the 1400s, and a variety of lively street cafes. Surrounded by the two largest Lithuanian rivers with a castle in-between - it is an attractive place to spend time both for tourists and locals.
Kaunas Old Town tour includes
• Gothic churches and townhouses of medieval merchants.
• Kaunas Medieval Castle dating from mid-14th century.
• Main square with the historic City Hall.
• Main pedestrian street full of nice buildings and cafes, offering both local and foreign cuisines.
• Impressive Kaunas Cathedral, a 600 year old largest Gothic building in Lithuania
• Embankment of Nemunas, the Lithuania’s mightiest and longest river.
• Panorama of the Old Town from above (optional).
• And more...
What will you learn
• Why was Kaunas a favorite trading spot for Medieval European merchants?
• Why did once-pagan Lithuanian leaders build so many churches?
• How did Kaunas castle fare against the foreign invaders?
• Why did it take two weeks to pass the bridge over Nemunas?
• And more…
The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages
Kaunas Golden Age tour
Price: see here
The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.
Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com
This tour will show you why Kaunas is considered among Europe’s best places to explore that unique period between the two World Wars.
Kaunas Golden Age tour includes
• Modernist Kaunas City Center redeveloped in that Golden Age, recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site.
• Massive government buildings – new Parliament, House of President, and Bank of Lithuania built to serve the entire newly-emerged country.
• Restaurants and cultural venues where Golden Age star musicians performed for the Interwar elite.
• Examples of art deco, Modernism, National style and other art styles of the era.
• Žaliakalnis Funicular, built in the early 30s to link the center to the district of interwar elite private homes.
• Christ Ressurection Basilica, envisioned in 1930s to be the largest in the Baltics.
• And more...
Optional:
• Museum of M. K. Čiurlionis, the most renowned Lithuanian artist who developed his original style encompassing painting and music on the eve of the Golden Age.
• War Museum (built in the Golden Age).
• Devil Museum – the only of the kind in the world, a collection of demon statuettes by eccentric Golden Age painter Antanas Zmuidzinavičius, the visit includes the possibility to see his own authentic apartment.
What will you learn...
• How the elite and common men of the 20s and 30s era lived, worked and spent their pastime?
• How a small town Russian fortress town was transformed into a European capital in the span of under 10 years?
• How could Kaunas look like without the Golden Age?
• Why was Kaunas was always given the title “temporary capital” rather than just called a state capital?
• Why is interwar often considered to be the Golden Age of entire Lithuania?
• And more…
Kaunas walking tour
Price: see here
The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.
Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com
Kaunas had numerous periods of importance: a medieval merchant city, one of four key fortress- cities of the Russian Empire, a temporary capital of interwar Lithuanian Republic, the “most Lithuanian town” in the whole USSR…. This tour is the only one to show all the faces of this city!
All of Kaunas tour includes
• The medieval Old Town with its castle, gothic churches, City Hall and homes of the Hanseatic Medieval merchants.
• The hub of massive Russian fortress that transformed entire Kaunas into a military city after the Napoleon invasion. This part includes an opulent Orthodox church, the officers building and more.
• The Golden Age Kaunas from the era it served as the capital of Lithuania (1920s-1930s), with its massive government buildings, cultural sites, funiculars and churches, all imbibed in the interwar art styles.
• And more...
Optional:
• A visit to various museums (for an additional price).
• Car trip to the forts of Kaunas (for an additional price).
• Car trip to Pažaislis monastery, a gem of northern Baroque (for an additional price).
Additionally, the tour can be tailor made, with any sights replaced by other ones as per your wishes and interests.
What will you learn
• Why was Kaunas first a castle attacked by many of future European rulers (including King of England) and later a favorite trading spot for Medieval Hanseatic merchants?
• How many forts had the Russian Tsar constructed around Kaunas and how did they succeed to prepare for the First Word War? Why was Kaunas fortress the last such fortress to be built and why did it survive so well?
• How was a small town on the confluence of rivers Nemunas and Neris transformed into a European capital in some 10 years?
• What were the rites of the elite in the interwar Golden Age Kaunas?
• How did Kaunas fare in the Soviet Union and how did its people challenge the regime?
• And more...
The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages
Kaunas Pažaislis monastery tour
Price: see here
The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.
Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com
Kaunas is so much more than its center!
This car tour of its suburbs may be ordered separately or combined with any of the walking tours of Kaunas.
Kaunas Pažaislis tour includes
• Pažaislis monastery church, a hexagonal domed masterpiece of architecture, designed by Italian architects Puttini and Frediani.
• Serene tree-laned entrance avenue to the monastery.
• Impressive Cloisters of the monastery.
• A stop in the 6th fort, part of an enormous authentic fortress built by the Russian Imperial Forces that once subsumed the entire city of Kaunas.
• Kaunas reservoir, the largest reservoir in Lithuania and a popular location for swimming and water sports.
• And more...
Optional (included in price):
• A side-trip to Petrašiūnai cemetery, where the elite of Kaunas is buried, including world-famous semiotic Algirdas Julien Greimas and archeologist / mythology researcher Marija Gimbutas.
• A stop at a line of wooden crosses spontaneously erected by Kaunas inhabitants in the early 1990s celebrating the freedom of Lithuania.
What will you learn
• What foreign artists and craftsmen decorated the glory of Pažaislis?
• What was the life in Pažaislis monastery when it was built?
• How massive was the far-reaching influence of Pažaislis owners and builders?
• How were the buildings used by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, both of which had the monastery closed?
• What was the life within Kaunas as it was turned into a Russian fortress city?
• How was Pažaislis restored after Lithuanian independence and how the nuns are living there today?
• And more...
The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages
Kaunas Jewish tour
Price: see here
The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.
Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com
Kaunas (or Kovno) has always had an active Jewish community. Historically a significant part of Kaunas elite were Jews: architects, businessmen, traders, and artists. Their lives inscribed a number of stories and traces visible in the architecture of the city. Kaunas is also renowned for an incredible story how Dutch and Japanese diplomats conspired to save hundreds of Jewish lives in the 1940s.
Kaunas Jewish tour includes
• Neo-Baroque Kaunas synagogue, still used by an active religious community.
• Two former synagogues that served different forms of Judaism.
• Chiyune Sugihara house where a Japanese consul saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.
• Locations where Jewish artists, architects and traders of Kaunas lived and worked (and their life stories).
• Monuments to the Jews of Kaunas.
• And more...
What will you learn
• Learn how Jews of Kaunas contributed to creating the city as it is today.
• See the streets, courtyards, and alleys where a Jewish community has thrived for centuries.
• Learn about the local Jewish community and culture, both historic and contemporary: their languages, beliefs and more.
• Witness the former Jewish cultural centers, and learn about the artists and performers of the interwar Kaunas who later prospered in Israel;
• Where did such artists as Marc Chagall arrange their exhibitions on the way from Russia to Paris?
• Learn how some Jews managed to hide or escape from the planned murder in Kovno Ghetto under Nazi German occupation (1941-1944) and what resistance took place.
• Learn other stories of the Holocaust / Shoah in Kaunas.
• And more...
The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages