Old Town and Town Hall Square
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Transcript
Begin before the temporary capital. Medieval Kaunas grew near the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris and developed as a trading town connected to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The Old Town’s churches, merchant houses and town hall show a city with a long history before 1919.
That matters because interwar planners were not founding Kaunas from scratch. They were adding a national capital to an existing urban organism.
When Vilnius came under Polish control after the First World War, Lithuanian institutions relocated to Kaunas. The word “temporary” preserved the political claim to Vilnius while daily government became increasingly permanent here.
A temporary office is one thing. A temporary capital with universities, ministries and sewage systems tends to develop attachment issues.