Vytautas the Great Bridge

On January 9, 1930 a 252, 64-meter-long and a 12, 60-meter-wide bridge was solemnly opened. It had arcs and was made of steel. Kaunas Burgomaster Jonas Vileišis offered to call it Vytautas the Great Bridge. ‘The longest bridge in the world‘, they used to joke about the bridge over the Nemunas next to Vytautas‘ Church in Kaunas. Aleksotas (on the left side of the river) and Kaunas had different laws and used different calendars, as Kaunas belonged to the north-western part of Russia, and Aleksotas with Užnemunė-to the Kingdom of Poland. In Kaunas an Orthodox calendar (Julian calendar) was used and in Užnemunė they had a Catholic calendar (Gregorian calendar), so it took 13 days to go over the bridge (such was the difference between calendars in the XX century).

Kaunas

Walk

Adapted for the disabled

54.8931, 23.8874

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