Kaunas is the only city in Lithuania connected directly with the Hanseatic union. During the rule of Kazimierz Jagiellon (Kazimieras Jogailaitis) the office of Hanseatic merchants with the right to keep a warehouse in the town was established in Kaunas, and the statute of the office from 1470 has survived. The office operated from 1440 to 1536 – nearly a century. The remaining symbols of the political and cultural activities of this union are two impressive former goods storage houses, so-called Hanseatic warehouses. Although, one of the warehouses is from the middle of the 19th century only, and the other buildings in the land plot of this warehouse were wooden. The history of the smaller warehouse is more complicated. This building consists of two parts, with the western part being most probably constructed in the middle of the 15th century, and the front eastern part with a more decorative façade was constructed in the first half of the 16th century. Later the building was reconstructed, damaged in the wars, and in the 19th century converted into the warehouse.
Mindaugas Bertašius