This property testifies to the rapid urbanization that transformed the provincial town of Kaunas into a modern city that became Lithuania’s provisional capital between the First and Second World Wars. The quality of modern Kaunas was manifested through the spatial organization of the Naujamiestis (New Town) and Žaliakalnis (Green Hill) areas, including an earlier town layout, and in public buildings, urban spaces and residences constructed during the interwar period that demonstrate a variety of stylistic forms in which the Modern Movement found architectural expression in the city.

Photo by M. Plepys

The years from 1919 to 1939 were a time of revolutionary cultural breakthrough for Kaunas, especially evident in architecture. Within 10 years its residents transformed Kaunas into a modern and elegant European capital with 10 000 new buildings. Kaunas modernism shows not the revolutionary but evolutionary character of architectural and urban development, which was characterised by the careful adaptation of the 19th-century urban grid, creative use of the natural environment, consistent development of the townscape and local interpretation of Modern Movement.

The influence of national tradition, the human scale and integration of the existing natural environment gradually formed the city that can be seen as one of the earliest examples of regionalism in the history of the Modern Movement. The variety of types of buildings aimed at performing the functions of the new capital in Kaunas provides a unique example of ideas of modernity being used to form a city that expressed the official nature of the state capital.

Photo by M. Plepys

For Kaunas today, modern heritage of the 1930’s has become the foundation of the city’s identity and an expression of its genius loci. Kaunas received European Heritage Label (2015), joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a UNESCO Design City (2015), was selected European Capital of Culture (2022) and finally entered the UNESCO World Heritage List (2023).