On a night in August 1978 a thief cut an oval canvas of the Virgin out of its frame in the Kaunas archcathedral and carried it off rolled under his coat. The police had it back within the year, restorers worked over the damage, and the painting went home to Pažaislis Monastery, nine kilometres east of the old town on a wooded peninsula of the Kaunas Reservoir, where it hangs above the main altar and pilgrims come to it.
Kaunas stands where the Neris runs into the Nemunas, and its churches keep to the water or to the ridge above it. Grand Duke Vytautas founded two of them: the parish church at the confluence that grew into the archcathedral, first named in writing in 1413, and, a few hundred metres upriver, the Gothic church he vowed to the Virgin after escaping the rout of the Lithuanian army at the Vorskla in 1399. Between the wars, with Vilnius outside Lithuania's borders, Kaunas held the government and the bishops, and the buildings of those years — a white basilica on the ridge, a Russian-built dome at the head of Laisvės alėja — belong to the same walk.
Seven of these places make up Piligriminis Kaunas, a marked trail run together by the city tourist office and the archdiocese's John Paul II Pilgrim Centre. A pilgrim collects a stamp at each stop, and five stamps earn a Kaunas pilgrim certificate from the centre. The old-town churches lie along a little more than two kilometres of street and make a morning; Pažaislis, out on its peninsula, takes a half-day of its own.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
Lithuania was the last country in Europe to accept baptism, and Catholic Kaunas begins with the Grand Duke who ruled after the conversion. Vytautas founded the parish church at the meeting of the rivers, and set Franciscans on the Nemunas bank below the town. Benedictine nuns arrived at St. Nicholas's in the seventeenth century and formed what is now the oldest unbroken religious community in the city.
The parish church became a cathedral when the bishops moved their seat here from Varniai, and the archbishops of Kaunas have had their chair in it since the Lithuanian church province was drawn up. The city's building years came after independence, when Kaunas served as the provisional capital: the Christ's Resurrection Basilica was raised on the ridge as the nation's thank-offering for its freedom, and the tsar's garrison cathedral at the end of Laisvės alėja passed to the Lithuanian army as a Catholic church.
Soviet rule emptied them one after another. St. Michael's was made a gallery of stained glass and sculpture, and Juozas Zikaras's bronze Laisvė was kept safe inside it through those decades. St. Nicholas's took the state library's book stock; the sisters were expelled, and went on teaching, nursing and taking their vows in secret, scattered across Lithuania. The unfinished basilica was fitted out as a radio factory. The churches came back to the archdiocese around 1990, and the repair of them filled the decade that followed.
John Paul II prayed in the archcathedral on 6 September 1993, on the first papal journey into the former Soviet Union. A plaque at the side entrance marks the spot, and the newest altar in the church is his, with a relic of the saint set in it.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Kaunas
The old-town churches stand along a two-kilometre line, from Vytautas the Great Church on the Nemunas bank, through the archcathedral and the Benedictine convent in the medieval streets, east along Laisvės alėja to the five domes at its far end. Pažaislis lies apart, out on the reservoir.
Kaunas Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul
Kauno arkikatedra bazilika
The largest Gothic church in Lithuania, its brick nave rising straight from the old town square, is the mother church of the archdiocese and the parish church Vytautas founded. Bishop Motiejus Valančius lies here, and the poet-priest Maironis, and Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius, Lithuania's first cardinal, in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
The devotion belongs to Marija Sopulingoji, Our Lady of Sorrows — a painting by an unknown hand, among the oldest things in the church, standing in its own side altar. Its feast falls on the Friday before Palm Sunday, when the archbishop leads the Mass and the congregation goes in procession to the altar. The altar of St. John Paul II, holding his relic, was added after his visit.
Pažaislis Monastery
Pažaislio vienuolynas
A Camaldolese monastery on a wooded peninsula of the Kaunas Reservoir, built for hermits who wanted the water and the trees between themselves and the town. The church stands at the head of a walled court, painted throughout in the seventeenth century and counted among the finest late Baroque work in this part of Europe. The Sisters of St. Casimir keep it.
Above the main altar hangs Gražiosios Meilės Motina, Our Lady of Fair Love, known also as the Camaldolese Mother of God: an oval canvas by an unknown Flemish painter, the Virgin and the Child ringed by a wreath of roses, sunflowers, lilies and orange blossom. Pope Alexander VII gave it to the monastery's founder in 1661. Russian monks took it east with them when the German army came, and the Sisters of St. Casimir traced it to Moscow and brought it home in 1928 through a crowd of some forty thousand people. It was moved to the archcathedral under Soviet rule, stolen from there, recovered, and returned to this altar in 2000.
Kaunas Christ's Resurrection Basilica
The white tower on the ridge above the old town is visible from most of Kaunas, and was built as the nation's thank-offering for regaining its independence. The Soviet authorities turned the unfinished church into a radio factory; it was given back to the faithful at independence and finished in the years that followed, and Pope Francis raised it to a minor basilica.
The roof terrace carries a chapel of Our Lady of Šiluva, with a relic of St. Anthony in it, and the whole city lies open from the parapet — the rivers, the old town roofs, the Pažaislis woods on the eastern horizon.
St. Michael the Archangel Church
Kauno Šv. arkangelo Mykolo (Įgulos) bažnyčia
Five domes on a Greek-cross plan close the far end of Laisvės alėja, the shape of an Orthodox garrison cathedral because that is what the Russian empire built here for its soldiers. Kaunas calls it Soboras out of habit. It passed to the Lithuanian army in 1919 and was reconsecrated for Catholic worship, and it is the garrison church of the Lithuanian armed forces, where soldiers, police officers and their families are married and their children baptised.
Christ the Good Shepherd was painted across the apse in the reworking of the interior, and the organ installed for the church between the wars has been restored to use. The crypt holds a museum made for blind visitors, where the exhibits are handled rather than looked at.
St. Gertrude Church
Kauno Šv. Gertrūdos bažnyčia
A small brick Gothic church set back behind the shopfronts of Laisvės alėja, low and plain beside the rest of Kaunas, and quiet in the middle of the busiest street in the city. It began outside the medieval town as a cemetery chapel and passed through the hands of the hospitaller brothers and the Sisters of Charity before the Marian Fathers took it.
The church keeps a venerated crucifix, carried here when the chapel that housed it was cleared away for the making of Laisvės alėja. The Soviet closure sent it to the archcathedral, and it came back to this altar in 1995. Candles are lit for intentions at the shrine facing the church door.
St. Nicholas Church and Benedictine Convent
Kauno Šv. Mikalojaus bažnyčia
Brick walls, an octagonal tower and crystal-rib vaults, on a short street named for the nuns who have prayed behind them since the seventeenth century. The community came from Nesvyžius at the invitation of a Kaunas marshal whose own daughter became its first abbess, and it has kept the hours here through partition, tsarist bans on novices, and the Soviet expulsion.
Blessed Teofilius Matulionis was chaplain to the sisters and brought Eucharistic adoration into the house; his relics were placed in a side altar of the church in 2018. Visitors may come to the sisters' office and to Mass, and are asked to leave the inner courtyard to the enclosure.
Vytautas the Great Church
Vytauto Didžiojo bažnyčia
The oldest Gothic building in Kaunas stands on the Nemunas bank by the bridge, so close to the water that the floods have marked it: the level of the worst of them, in 1946, is cut on the main door at shoulder height above a grown man. Vytautas vowed the church to the Virgin after the Vorskla, by the account the church tells of itself, and gave it to the Franciscans he brought to Kaunas. It is the one Gothic church in Lithuania laid out on a Latin cross.
Napoleon's army made an arms depot of it and burnt it on the retreat; the tsar's government closed it and fitted it out as an Orthodox church; the German army stored potatoes in it. Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, priest and writer, took it in hand when it was returned to the Church, furnished it with the painters of his generation, and is buried in the left nave. Petras Kalpokas's canvas over the main altar shows Vytautas giving thanks to the Virgin after the battle that is the reason the church exists.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of the Sorrowful Blessed Virgin Mary — Friday before Palm Sunday
Kaunas Cathedral Basilica. The archbishop celebrates the Mass and the congregation processes to the side altar of Marija Sopulingoji, where the indulgence of the day is kept. It is the archcathedral's own feast, held at the threshold of Holy Week.
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary — 15 August
Pažaislis Monastery. Žolinė in Lithuanian, the day herbs and the first grain are brought to be blessed. Vytautas the Great Church carries the same dedication, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and keeps the day with it.
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary — 8 September
Kaunas Christ's Resurrection Basilica, on the Sunday nearest the date. The feast falls inside the week of Šilinės at Šiluva, and Kaunas pilgrims keep both.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Hotel Kaunas ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A modern four-star hotel on Laisvės alėja, the pedestrian boulevard that leads into the old town, with an indoor pool and a restaurant. kaunashotel.lt ∙ Reserve this hotel
BEST WESTERN Santakos Hotel ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A four-star hotel in a century-old building at the meeting of the city centre and the old town, on a quiet street a short walk from the Town Hall. santakahotel.eu ∙ Reserve this hotel
VICTORIA Hotel Kaunas ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A four-star hotel in a renovated interwar printing house on Miško gatvė, a few minutes’ walk from Laisvės alėja, with a spa and a restaurant. hotelvictoria.lt ∙ Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Kaunas Airport (KUN) lies fourteen kilometres east of the city and serves low-cost carriers across Europe. City bus route 29 runs from the terminal to the centre and the railway station. Vilnius Airport (VNO), about one hundred kilometres east, is Lithuania’s largest airport and carries the widest range of international connections.
By Train: LTG Link operates the rail service between Kaunas and Vilnius, with direct trains through the day.
By Bus: The Kaunas bus station, on Vytauto prospektas, serves intercity and international routes. The station is run by Kautra.
By Car: The A1 motorway connects Vilnius to Kaunas, about one hundred kilometres of divided highway. Parking is available in the old town and along Laisvės alėja.
Local Transport: City buses run by Kauno autobusai serve the airport, the railway station and the old town.
📚 Further Reading
Aleksandras Ostasenkovas. Kryžių Kalnas: Hill of the Cross / Berg Der Kreuze — A bilingual photographic study of the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania's national pilgrimage site, where crosses have been planted through every suppression. In Lithuanian, English and German.
Fr. Seraphim Michalenko and Vinny Flynn. The Divine Mercy Message and Devotion — The handbook to the Divine Mercy devotion whose original image hangs in Vilnius, a pilgrimage destination within easy reach of Kaunas.
Maria Faustina Kowalska. Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul — The spiritual diary of St. Faustina, who received the Divine Mercy visions in Vilnius, where the original image was painted at her request.
Michael E. Gaitley. 33 Days to Merciful Love — A do-it-yourself retreat for consecration to Divine Mercy, a preparation a pilgrim to Lithuania's shrines might undertake.
🎥 Recommended Videos
Pažaislis Monastery, Kaunas by Studio RaR – A walk through the Baroque church and cloister of Pažaislis, the Camaldolese monastery on the Kaunas Reservoir.
Bernardine Monastery in Kaunas by Bernardinų takais – The restored Bernardine monastery and church in the old town of Kaunas.
St. Nicholas Church and Benedictine Convent, Kaunas by Palaimintasis Teofilius – The oldest religious community in Kaunas, where Benedictine nuns have kept the hours since the seventeenth century.
Pope John Paul II celebrating Mass in Kaunas, 1993 by AP Archive – Footage from the first papal visit to the former Soviet Union, the Mass celebrated at the confluence of the rivers.
🔗 Useful Links
John Paul II Pilgrim Centre – The Kaunas Archdiocese office that coordinates pilgrimage, walking routes and the city trail
Piligriminis Kaunas – The seven-stop city pilgrim trail, its map and the stamp certificate
Kaunas Archdiocese – Parishes, rectorates and the calendar of the archdiocese
John Paul II Pilgrim Route – The national route through the places the pope visited in Lithuania
🥾 Pilgrim Routes
Piligriminis Kaunas – A city trail of seven stops, made together by the Kaunas Tourism Information Centre and the John Paul II Pilgrim Centre: the archcathedral, the archdiocese museum, St. Gertrude's, the Christ's Resurrection Basilica, the Benedictine church of St. Nicholas, the crypt of St. Michael the Archangel, and Pažaislis. Each stop gives a stamp, and five stamps bring a Kaunas pilgrim certificate. Paper maps are handed out at the tourist office, at the pilgrim centre and at any of the stops.
Gyva piligrimystė – Five marked walking routes to Šiluva, from 8 km at Tytuvėnai to 25 km from Betygala, with a 10.8 km circuit of Šiluva itself; the shortest is level enough for a wheelchair or a pram. A group leaves Kaunas on the last Saturday of each month with a priest, taking a different route each time; walkers going alone or in their own party register with the shrine first.
John Paul II Pilgrim Route – The national route marking the pope's Lithuanian journey, drawn up by the government and the bishops with sixteen sites. The Christ's Resurrection Basilica is the Kaunas stop on it.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Trakai (73 km) — The Basilica of the Visitation keeps the icon of Our Lady, Protectress of Lithuania, crowned before any other Marian image in the country.
Šiluva (82 km) — The Virgin appeared to shepherds here in 1608, weeping over the field where a church had been lost; it is the shrine of the Kaunas archdiocese and the destination of its walking pilgrimages.
Vilnius (93 km) — The Gate of Dawn, the original Divine Mercy image and the relics of St. Casimir, patron of Lithuania.
Hill of the Crosses (128 km) — Lithuania's national place of pilgrimage, a mound outside Šiauliai planted with more than a hundred thousand crosses left by pilgrims.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"I have come here, to Šiluva, to give thanks to God for granting you the strength to overcome those trials."
