History
At the place where the castle is located nowadays the first settlement was erected in the fourth and fifth century constructed of wood and clay.
In the 13th century the first heavier affixed castle of Kaunas was built. It was one of the most important defenses during the fights against the crusaders.
The castle of Kaunas is the oldest castle made of stone in Lithuania. The castle place was the hill – up to the river Neris, this river was a little bit more northern – different from nowadays.
The castle had a small yard, sized 0.5 hectare, which was paled with a guardian wall. In the yard of the castle there were wooden houses and barns. It was built at the end of the 13th century. The wall showed up a thickness of 2 up to 2.2 meters, a height of 12 up to 13 meters and the gate was located at the east side which was able to be lifted 3 up to 4 meters up from the ground.
At the outside near to the frontier of the castle there was a little defense hill - 2.5 meters high - with a guardian moat. 18 up to 30 meters away from the fence of the yard there was a 10 up to 11 metres high defense wall of 1.3 up to 2 metres thickness which was the wall which paled the castle This wall was built in the middle of the thirteenth century; it is the older one comparing to the wall of the yard. In the top of both walls there where loop-holes. The walls where built of stone and the junctions were constructed with small stones and macadam. It is remarkable that Kaunas castle was the only castle in Lithuania with a double-fence defense fortification.
In 1362 the castle was destroyed by the crusaders an till 1368 the second castle was built and fitted to defense from the gunpowder shooting guns ( the first gunpowder guns arose during the 1360´s although the technical know how of gun powder was much older ). In the middle of the fourteenth century the castle was intensified. Nowadays the remain of the castle is the halfway closed yard straitened by the southern wall of 2 up to 3 meters height. To the left there is also the bottom of the quadrate tower in the southwest corner. There are also remains of the circular tower in the southeast corner which is reconstructed until the 4th floor. From the yard side there is an entrance to the first floor of the reconstructed tower. The wooden laps were rebuilt; the top was covered with a reinforced plane roof-construction.
The Kaunas castle is a gothic protective building that continued consequently with the plan of the Second castle. The remains of the castle tell us about the first spatial structure, the technique of construction and dimensions. Kaunas castle is the architectural monument of Republican importance.
The castle also helps to know more and better about the process of Lithuanian architecture that took place in those days.