(Excerpts from Wikipedia -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaunas)

Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania (after Vilnius), the fourth largest in the Baltic states, and an important center of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life.

By Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada - Street Scene along Vilniaus Gatve - Kaunas - Lithuania, cc by-sa 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64116864

The city covers 15,700 hectares. Parks, groves, gardens, nature reserves and agricultural areas occupy 8,329 hectares. Located on a plain, like most of the country, Kaunas is renowned for its river landscapes and valleys, due to its location at the confluence of the Neris and the Nemen.

Kaunas has 16 city parks (Ąžuolyno, A.Šančių ąžuolynas, Dainavos, Draugystės, Kalniečių, Santakos, Vilijos, Nepriklausomybės, Santarvės, Marvos dvaro, Girstupio, Gričiupio, Kovo 11-osios, Neries krantinės, Antakalnio g., Sargėnų dvaro), whose total territory is 1,080 hectares. In addition, there are three forest parks (Panemunės, Kleboniškio, Lampėdžių), three landscape reserves (Jiesios, Veršvos, Nevėžio), one regional park (Kauno Marios Regional Park), five territorial reserves, and one bird sanctuary. In and around Kaunas, there are 43 exploitable mineral deposits: anhydrite and gypsum, sand and gravel, freshwater limestone, clay, chalk, marl, peat, and mineral water. Kaunas has a humid continental climate (Köppen classification: Dfb) with an average annual temperature of approximately 7 °C.

Despite its northern location, Kaunas has a relatively mild climate compared to other cities at similar latitudes, mainly thanks to the Baltic Sea. Due to its latitude, Kaunas enjoys 17 hours of sunshine in the height of summer, compared to only about 7 hours in the depths of winter. The Kazlų Rūda forest, west of Kaunas, creates a microclimate around the city, regulating humidity and air temperature and protecting it from strong westerly winds. Summers in Kaunas are warm and pleasant, with average highs of 21 to 22°C and lows of around 12°C. However, the mercury can reach 30°C on some days. Winters are relatively cold and sometimes snowy, with average temperatures ranging from -8 to 0°C, rarely dropping below -15°C. Spring and autumn are generally cool to mild.

Since 1413, Kaunas has been the largest city and the capital of the Duchy of Trakai, within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Palatinate of Trakai. Under the Russian Empire, Kaunas was the capital of the government from 1843 to 1915.

Between 1920 and 1939, during the Polish occupation of Vilnius, Kaunas was the provisional capital of Lithuania. During the interwar period, Kaunas was renowned for its thriving cultural and academic life, its fashion scene, the construction of countless buildings in the Lithuanian Art Deco and Neoclassical styles, as well as for its furniture, interior design, and highly developed café culture. Kaunas's architecture from this period is considered one of the finest examples of European Art Deco and has been awarded the European Heritage Label. This recognition contributed to Kaunas being designated the first Central and Eastern European "Creative City" by UNESCO, and to its inscription on the World Heritage List in 2023, as the only European city to bear witness to large-scale urbanization and remarkable modernist architecture during the interwar period. Kaunas was designated European Capital of Culture 2022, jointly with Esch-sur-Alzette and Novi Sad. The city is the county seat of Kaunas County and the seat of the Kaunas Municipality and District. It is also home to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. Kaunas is situated at the confluence of Lithuania's two largest rivers, the Neman and the Neris, and near the Kaunas Reservoir, the country's largest body of water. According to Eurostat, the population of the Kaunas functional urban area is estimated at 391,153 inhabitants (2021 data), while statistics from the Kaunas Territorial Health Insurance Fund indicate that the city and its district have 447,946 permanent residents (2022 data). Furthermore, Kaunas's higher education institutions welcome thousands of students each year.