Lithuania - Kaunas 1919-1939: The Capital Inspired by the Modern Movement

"During the period 1918 to 1940, Lithuania was one of the newly restored states that had formed in Central and Eastern Europe on a national-territorial basis after the First World War. Vilnius, its historic capital, had been lost in 1919, and Kaunas became the new capital city. Formerly a modest Imperial Russian garrison town, it suddenly acquired a new importance on the map of Europe. Its status as capital provided an impulse to accelerate its integration into the political, social and cultural context of interwar Europe, through material and non-material forms, such as architecture, diplomacy, culture and education. During a short but very intense period, Kaunas lived through the most important phase in its historical development. The years from 1919 to 1939 were a time of revolutionary cultural breakthroughs for Kaunas, which was especially evident in architecture. Its status as a capital city provoked a huge construction boom, aiming to create all the necessary infrastructure: government institutions, museums, educational institutions (a university, academies and schools), business offices, hotels, industrial premises, housing, and the general infrastructure of the city (water supplies, the sewerage system, a new transport system, roads and parks). The architectural landscape of multicultural Kaunas was enriched by the buildings of various ethnic communities, such as churches, banks and schools, with distinctive forms of expression (in 1937 the population of the city was 61% Lithuanian, 25.5% Jewish, 3.9% Polish, 3.3% German, and 3.3% Russian). In 1938, it attracted 68% of all Lithuanian investment in the construction of towns and cities. The area of the city expanded more than seven times (from 557 hectares in 1919 to 3,940 hectares in 1939). More than 6,000 buildings from this period have survived till today."

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List



A modernistic building of Kaunas. Thanks to Ieva of Lithuania.