Kaunas, the Old Town

Kaunas, the Old Town. Next day, it was a trip to the old town but first I had some chores to do

                                       

This is an avenue of trees lined with famous Lithuanians and at the far end... 

...the everlasting flame to remember all those who fell in Lithuania's liberation. It was originally part of the Russian Empire but was captured early on in the First World War. After Germany's defeat, the Lithuanians fought to achieve independence.

Any one who has walked El Camino will instantly recognise this brass scallop steel embedded in the pavement. It shows the way from the cathedral to Santiago de Compostela.

The main railway station...

...inside the main booking hall...

the rail side of the building...

...and the double decker express to Vilnius.

A beautiful 19th century brick built building

I had to search a lot of back streets to find this old example of a wooden building before the city developed.

A walk along the river from passes the upstream end of the Neman Island with the inside of the bend in the foreground and the main river behind with a model of a white drone at the very tip. In the back ground is a Soviet era  grain silo complex. 

Then I cut inland to the main square in the old town with its town hall...

...and parish church.

Just off the main square is the cathedral built of brick and not much to look at from the outside, this view showing the tower at the south west corner, built in 1413...

...but the insides are spectacular, looking back at the western entrance and the organ above the door...

...a detail of the roof above the choir...

...the altar...

...the pulpit...

...one of the columns holding up the roof...

...a detail of the roof above the nave.

There are old houses and merchants warehouses throughout the old town.

...another example...

...and a more recent warehouse and home.

And then it was a short walk to the castle. It was built on the peninsula where the Neris River joins with the Neman River. It was first mentioned in 1361 and destroyed in 1362 by the Teutonic Knights and subsequently rebuilt and destroyed several times. It was a ruin until it was heavily refurbished by the newly independent state.

 

A section of wall stretching away from the single surviving tower, as seen across the dry moat.

 

The new wooden bridge spanning the moat and the tower in the back ground. 

After a walk through the park, this is the end of the peninsula with the Neris river on the right and the Neman river on the left.