Kaunas Architecture (part 2)

School Of Commerce
Donelaitis Street can boast of a great number of public buildings marking the significant moments of the interwar Lithuania. We can find externally quite modest building here as well, to which the flow of history granted a role that wasn’t so modest. Lithuanian higher education was born here: Higher Courses were established here in 1919, and in 1922 – the University of Lithuania, the future Vytautas Magnus University.

Saulės Gymnasium
The palace appeared in 1913, when the Lithuanian education association has collected enough funds to build a Lithuanian-speaking gymnasium. Then Žaliakalnis was a poorly developed part of the city, so the monumental palace, located at a special are, seen from every point of the city’s centre, appeared here probably because of the cheap land plot.

Ohel Jaakov Choral Synagogue
Changes came to the architecture of synagogues on the second half of the 19th century: the established norms changed and once Historicism took over, many unusual elements were used in the expression of the Jew’s house of prayer. Sometimes, some elements from the Christian churches were adapted to the buildings. In 1872, the Kaunas merchant Lewin Minkowski built a new synagogue, which today is destined to remain the only functioning one of the former dozens of Kaunas Jewish house of prayers.

Bank Of Lithuania Building
In the 1920s, the economic situation of the young Lithuania was quite difficult. The situation was worsened by the fact that the capital had to be immediately relocated to Kaunas, which was not prepared for that: the premises were scarce not only for the swarming civil servants, but for the institutions themselves as well.

Kaunas State Musical Theater
From a small theatre of the centre of the Russian Empire Governorate to one of the most important buildings of the interwar Republic of Lithuania. Such changes marked the first fifty years of the current Kaunas State Musical Theatre. According to the project of Justinas Golinevičius, who was the architect of the governorate and an author of many buildings back then, Kaunas theatre palace was built in the city garden in 1892.

St. Archangel Michael’s (Crew) Church In Kaunas
The tradition of the Byzantine architecture had a great impact on the Orthodox religious buildings – this was particularly evident through the plan of the Greek cross with its cantered large dome and the highly distinctive décor of the interiors. As the style of Historicism spread, the so called neo- Byzantine architecture started appearing in the Russian Empire, splitting into a few branches in the construction of Orthodox churches.

Kaunas Fortress Complex Of Buildings
The former heart of the Kaunas Fortress – a complex of nine buildings in Naujamiestis. Though some of the buildings have changed their appearance, but the major part of ensemble retained its primary appearance, typical of the neo-Classicistic trends of the late 19th century. Though it’s worth taking a look around the whole ensemble, however the most impressive building here is the Commandant headquarters built in the 1890-1891, which not only retained its exterior.