<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Lithuania" class="extiw" title="w:en:Lithuania">Lithuania</a>, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Baltic_region" class="extiw" title="w:en:Baltic region">Baltic region</a> of Europe and is considered to be one of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Baltic_states" class="extiw" title="w:en:Baltic states"> Baltic states</a>. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Baltic_Sea" class="extiw" title="w:en:Baltic Sea">Baltic Sea</a>, to the east of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Sweden" class="extiw" title="w:en:Sweden">Sweden</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Denmark" class="extiw" title="w:en:Denmark">Denmark</a>. It is bordered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Latvia" class="extiw" title="w:en:Latvia">Latvia</a> to the north, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Belarus" class="extiw" title="w:en:Belarus">Belarus</a> to the east and south, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Poland" class="extiw" title="w:en:Poland">Poland</a> to the south, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kaliningrad_Oblast" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kaliningrad Oblast">Kaliningrad Region</a> (a Russian enclave) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people (as of 2019), and its capital and largest city is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Vilnius" class="extiw" title="w:en:Vilnius">Vilnius</a>. Other major cities are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kaunas" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kaunas">Kaunas</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Klaip%C4%97da" class="extiw" title="w:en:Klaipėda">Klaipėda</a>. Lithuanians are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Balts" class="extiw" title="w:en:Balts">Baltic people</a>. 
<p>For centuries, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en_Mindaugas" class="extiw" title="w:en Mindaugas">Mindaugas</a>, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kingdom_of_Lithuania" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kingdom of Lithuania">Kingdom of Lithuania</a>, was created on 6 July 1253. During the 14th century, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Grand_Duchy_of_Lithuania" class="extiw" title="w:en:Grand Duchy of Lithuania">Grand Duchy of Lithuania</a> was the largest country in Europe; present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia were the territories of the Grand Duchy. With the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Lublin_Union" class="extiw" title="w:en:Lublin Union">Lublin Union</a> of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:personal_union" class="extiw" title="w:en:personal union">’personal union’</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth" class="extiw" title="w:en:Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth">Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth</a>. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighbouring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772 to 1795, with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Russian_Empire" class="extiw" title="w:en:Russian Empire">Russian Empire</a> annexing most of Lithuania's territory.
As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:WW1" class="extiw" title="w:en:WW1">World War I (WWI)</a> neared its end, Lithuania's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Act_of_Independence_of_Lithuania" class="extiw" title="w:en:Act of Independence of Lithuania">Act of Independence</a> was signed on 16 February 1918, declaring the founding of the modern Republic of Lithuania. In the midst of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:WW2" class="extiw" title="w:en:WW2">Second World War (WWII)</a>, Lithuania was first <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Soviet_occupation_of_the_Baltic_states_(1940)" class="extiw" title="w:en:Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)">occupied by the Soviet Union</a> and then by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:German_occupation_of_Lithuania_during_World_War_II" class="extiw" title="w:en:German occupation of Lithuania during World War II">Nazi Germany</a>. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Soviet_occupation_of_the_Baltic_states_(1944)" class="extiw" title="w:en:Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1944)">Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania</a>. On 11 March 1990, a year before the formal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union" class="extiw" title="w:en:Dissolution of the Soviet Union">Dissolution of the Soviet Union</a>, Lithuania became the first Baltic state to declare itself independent, resulting in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Act_of_the_Re-Establishment_of_the_State_of_Lithuania" class="extiw" title="w:en:Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania">restoration of an independent State of Lithuania</a>.
</p><p>Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and the historical focus of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the centre of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Trakai_Voivodeship" class="extiw" title="w:en:Trakai Voivodeship">Trakai District Municipality</a> in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. In the Russian Empire, it was the capital of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kovno_Governorate" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kovno Governorate">Kaunas Governorate</a> from 1843 to 1915. During the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Interwar_period" class="extiw" title="w:en:Interwar period">interwar period</a>, it served as the temporary capital of Lithuania, and during that period Kaunas was celebrated for its rich cultural and academic life, fashion, construction of countless <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Art_Deco" class="extiw" title="w:en:Art Deco">Art Deco</a> and Lithuanian National Romanticism architectural-style buildings, and a widespread café culture. Kaunas is located at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/enNeman" class="extiw" title="w:enNeman">Nemunas</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Neris" class="extiw" title="w:en:Neris">Neris</a>, and is near the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kaunas_Reservoir" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kaunas Reservoir">Kaunas Reservoir</a>, the largest body of water in the whole of Lithuania.
Kaunas Castle is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:medieval" class="extiw" title="w:en:medieval">medieval</a> castle which archeological evidence suggests was originally built during the mid-14th century, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Gothic_architecture" class="extiw" title="w:en:Gothic architecture">Gothic</a> style. Its site is strategic – a rise on the banks of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Neris River.
</p>
<br><span style="color:blue;"><i>The <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist/Poland" class="mw-redirect" title="User:Scotch Mist/Poland">Scotch Mist Gallery</a> contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland and countries that previously comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.</i></span>
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist" title="User:Scotch Mist">Scotch Mist</a>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>