Kaunas

Kaunas ([engineering] (?·i)) is a Lithuanian city located in the center of the country, in the homonymous province. It is the second most populous city in Lithuania after Vilna, with some 328 763 inhabitants. It was the capital of the first Republic of Lithuania, between 1920 and 1939.

Founded in 1361 at the confluence of the Neman and Neris rivers, Kaunas was the most populous municipality in the Trakai Voivodeship during the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. When it was annexed by the Russian Empire it became the capital of the Kaunas Governorate. With the declaration of independence of Lithuania in 1918, Kaunas temporarily became the capital, since Vilnius had been annexed by Poland. In the interwar period, the city was a cultural and academic epicenter, a quality that is reflected in the numerous Romanesque and Art Deco buildings, which earned it the European Heritage Seal.

Commercially, it is the most important river port in the Baltic countries and has the Kaunas Reservoir, the largest artificial lake in Lithuania.

Etymology

The Lithuanian place name "Kaunas" has been official since 1918, and the most widespread theory is that it derives from a personal name.

Before Lithuanian independence, the city was generally known as "Kovno", the Slavic adaptation of the name. The Poles call it "Kowno" and have kept that name, while the Russians and Germans adopted the official place name in the 20th century. The Yiddish name is "Kovne" (קאָוונע).

History

Although the surrounding areas of Kaunas have been inhabited since the I century B.C. C., the first definitive settlements date from the X century. The Arab cartographer Al-Idrisi mentioned the place in the Rogerian Tabula under the name "Qaynu", very similar to the current place name.

Reconstruction of the castle of Kaunas.

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania fortified the city of Kaunas in the 14th century to defend against the Teutonic Order. The Chronica nova Prutenica mentions the construction of the present Kaunas castle in 1361, since then established as the official founding year of the city. And although the Teutonic Knights besieged and captured it the following year, the Lithuanian forces managed to recapture it shortly after. After the Battle of Grunwald, Polish-Lithuanian power was consolidated and Kaunas was able to grow normally.

Kaunas obtained the Magdeburg Law in 1408, during the reign of Vytautas the Great, and became one of the most important powiat of the Trakai voivodeship (1413-1795), since he was able to develop their own businesses and institutions. In 1441 he joined the Hanseatic League and established the only trading post (kontor) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, open until 1532. At the end of the century XVI, Kaunas was one of the most prosperous municipalities in Central Europe.

The 17th and XVIII were unfortunate for the city, attacked by the Russian Empire and the Swedish army in the framework of different conflicts. Added to this was an outbreak of the bubonic plague and serious fires that decimated the local population. After the division of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Russians occupied the city in 1795 without restoring peace of mind, as it was again attacked by the Napoleon Bonaparte's troops and was later the focus of both the Cadet Revolution (1830-1831) and the January Rising (1869-1864).

Kaunas in the mid-centuryXIX

During the Russian Empire it became the capital of the governorate of the same name, the Kaunas fortress was erected as a defense and infrastructures were built to restore its commercial potential. Among them, the creation of a river port, the railway connection between Russia and Germany (1862) and the opening of a power plant (1898) stand out. In addition, the diocese of Samogitia was transferred from Varniai to Kaunas, giving the city greater religious and cultural influence.

The 1918 declaration of independence made Kaunas the provisional capital of the Republic of Lithuania, since Vilnius was under the control of Russia and later Poland. And social; Institutions such as the Vitautas University (today's Technological University) were created, and industrial development brought a standard of living comparable to that of the large cities of Western Europe. By the late 1930s it had become the most populous city in Lithuania., with a population of Lithuanian origin and a notable Jewish minority.

However, during World War II it first suffered the Soviet invasion (1940-1941) and, after a brief civil uprising, the German occupation (1941-1944). The Nazi army carried out a holocaust of the Jewish population with the establishment of the Kovno Ghetto; it is estimated that there were more than 30,000 victims. The Soviets recaptured the square in 1944 to establish the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, and at the end of the conflict the capital was transferred to Vilnius, already under Lithuanian sovereignty.

During the Soviet period, Kaunas became the most important industrial city in the country and came to represent 25% of national production, quadrupling its number of inhabitants. At the same time, it was the epicenter of the nationalist movement that demanded the independence of Lithuania, with acts such as the immolation of Romas Kalanta in 1972 and the Singing Revolution demonstrations.

Since the restoration of independence in 1991, Kaunas has opened up to Western Europe and has adapted its industry to the needs of a market economy, further promoting its urban transformation. In all that time the city has lost almost a 40% of the population due to emigration and low birthrate.

Coat of arms

On June 30, 1993, the historical coat of arms of the city of Kaunas was established by a special presidential decree. The coat of arms features a white bull with a gold cross between its horns, against a red background. The bull is the original heraldic symbol of the city since 1400. The heraldic seal of Kaunas, introduced at the beginning of the 15th century, during the reign of Grand Duke Vytautas, it is the heraldic seal of the oldest known city on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The current emblem was the result of much study and discussion by the Lithuanian Heraldry Commission, and realized by the artist Raimondas Miknevičius. The bull has replaced the European bison, depicted in the Soviet-era emblem, which has been in use since 1969.

Kaunas has other coats of arms, which are mainly used for representation purposes of the city of Kaunas.

Territorial organization

Kaunas is divided into 12 zones:

• West — Šilainiai, Vilijampolė.
• This — Centras, Dainava, Eiguliai, Gričiupis, Šančiai, Žaliakalnis
• South — Aleksotas, Panemunė

Climate

Kaunas in winter

Kaunas has a continental climate, with cold winters and mild, rainy summers. Despite its northern location, the climate in Kaunas is relatively mild compared to other places at similar latitudes, mainly due to the influence of the Baltic Sea. Due to its latitude, daylight in Kaunas extends from 17 hours in the height of summer to only about 7 hours in the height of winter. The Kazlu Forest, west of Kaunas, creates a microclimate around the city, regulating the humidity and temperature of the air, and protecting it from strong westerly winds.

Summers in Kaunas are pleasant, with highs around 21-22°C and lows around 12°C, but temperatures can reach 30°C on some days. Winters are cold, and often snowy, with average temperatures ranging from -8 to 0 °C and rarely falling below -15 °C. Generally, spring and fall are cool and temperate.

Demographics

People in Kaunas

With a population of 328,763 according to the 2019 census, Kaunas is the second most populous city in Lithuania after Vilnius. It is also the Lithuanian city with the highest percentage of Lithuanian speakers; they represent 94% of the total registered, while in the capital that figure is reduced to 63%. Citizens of Russian origin account for 4% of the total, and the rest of the groups do not exceed one percentage point.

The demographic composition has varied remarkably over the years. At the end of the 19th century there was a large Russian community that ended up leaving the country with Lithuanian independence. In the 1920s, when Kaunas was the de facto capital, Lithuanians made up 59% of the population and there was a notable minority of Jews (27%), followed by small groups of Poles, Germans Baltics and Russians. However, the Jewish population was exterminated during World War II.

During the Soviet Union, there were more than 400,000 inhabitants registered in the census. After the restoration of independence, Kaunas has lost population due to emigration and a low birth rate.

Kaunas demographic evolution figure between 1897 and 2011

Population of law according to the Lithuanian Statistics Centre.

Health

The city has (among others) the Kaunas Red Cross Hospital, which has been in operation since 1908.

Transportation

Much of the transportation in Kaunas depends on road traffic. The European highway "E67", popularly known as "Via Baltica", runs from Prague (Czech Republic) to Helsinki (Finland) passing through Poland and the capitals of the Baltic countries. This road intersects to the east with the "A1" highway, which connects the capital Vilnius with the port city of Klaipėda, and with the "A5" ring highway. To the north, Kaunas connects with the "A6" motorway, which in turn is linked to the E262 European road towards Ostrov (Russia).

The Kaunas railway station was inaugurated in 1862, integrated into a line that connected Saint Petersburg with Warsaw. Today it is a gateway station of Lithuanian Railways and is part of the line connecting Lithuania to the Polish city of Bialystok. Its integration into the future Rail Baltica is planned.

The neighborhoods of the city, built on the confluence of two rivers, are connected by more than thirty bridges and viaducts. The most important are the Vytautas the Great Bridge and the M. K. Čiurlionis Bridge, which connect Aleksotas to the Old Town. The public transport network is made up of a network of buses, trolleybuses and minibuses.

15 km from the center is the Kaunas airport (IATA code: KUN), the second busiest in Lithuania and the fourth in the Baltic countries as a whole; In 2017 alone, more than a million passengers passed through it. The facility is mainly used by low-cost airlines: Ryanair and Wizz Air. Kaunas is considered the cradle of Baltic aviation, as in 1933 an attempt was made to make a non-stop long-distance flight from the Aleksotas airbase to New York. Pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas died in the attempt aboard the "Lituanica" and have been considered national heroes ever since.

Education

Kaunas is considered a city of students, with more than 25,000 young people studying at its universities.

Sports

Interior of the Darius and Girėnas Stadium, built in 1925.

Kaunas is the city with the longest sports tradition in Lithuania, as the country's first sports clubs were founded there. Most of the sports facilities are grouped in the Žaliakalnis district, such as the Sports Pavilion —basketball—, the Darius and Girenas Stadium —athletics and football— and the National Football Academy. Nearby is the Lithuanian Sports University, opened in 1934 as the first Baltic center specializing in physical education.

The most practiced sport is basketball and its representative club is Žalgiris Kaunas, which since its foundation in 1944 has become the most successful in Lithuania, as well as the only one in the country that has been able to win both the Soviet league and the Euroleague. Stars such as Modestas Paulauskas, Arvydas Sabonis, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Šarūnas Jasikevičius among many others have emerged from its ranks. The team plays its matches at the Žalgiris Arena, opened in 2011.

Although football is not a mainstream sport, Kaunas featured the pioneer club in Lithuania (LFLS Kaunas) and has hosted the national team matches from 1990 until 2013, when the Lithuanian FA moved to a new ground in Vilnius. After the disappearance of FBK Kaunas, the most representative club is Kauno Žalgiris.

Twinned cities

Kaunas has twinning agreements with the following cities:

Notable people