Jesuits first settled in Vilnius in 1569 and from the third decade of the 17th century Jesuits sought to settle in Kaunas ‒ another strategically important town of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy. Jesuits arrived in Kaunas in 1642 and settled in the stone house of brothers Albert, Casimir and Peter Wijuk Kojalowicz (Albertas, Kazimieras and Petras Vijūkas-Kojalavičius). By 1649, 10 Jesuits had already established themselves in Kaunas and in the same year a four-year school was established at the monastery. In 1653 the school was transformed into a college, in which the study programme prepared after St. Ignatius of Loyola (Ratio et institutio studiorum) was followed. In the second half of the 18th century the French language and astronomy were introduced at the college, and history and geography were taught as separate subjects.
Vaida Kamuntavičienė