Where did the commemorative paving tiles for the Tulpė café in Laisvės Avenue go? How come we hear the sound of bells at noon coming from the church without bells? Why is the plaque commemorating the exploits of Dutch Honorary Consul Jan Zwartendijk hanging elsewhere than his place of work? Is it true that the Kaunas Town Hall and Church of St. Michael the Archangel are connected by an underground tunnel? And who painted the smiling cats around the city?
There are more riddles about Kaunas than answers, and even those that can be received or calculated are not always logical. This is the great beauty of an everchanging city. Every time you go for a walk after a break, you will discover something new or unexpected. And if you linger at an intersection long enough, you will undoubtedly notice something you weren’t meant to see. Look around – could it be that you are being watched too?
Does it sound like a detective story? That was our goal. The hot season, when the evenings are long, and work feels tedious, is a perfect time to immerse yourself in the role of a detective, spy, or scout. Therefore, we dedicate the July issue to detectives, mysteries, and thrillers – both those on paper and those that actually happened in Kaunas. For the first time in the history of the magazine, we are publishing an essay written especially for us by Ernestas Parulskis, one of the hosts of the LRT radio show Nenušaunami siužetai (Hard to Kill Plots) well-known to detective story lovers.
Also in the magazine, you will find journalist and writer Dailius Dargis sharing his insights about one of Kaunas’ many faces, which might not be the most prominent but is interesting to tens of thousands. Our colleague Agnė Sadauskaitė talks about how a newcomer manages to solve the riddles of Kaunas. We tackle the puzzle of how to fit such a multifaceted city into a small white building located at its heart. We also interview Vilnius-based Bernardas Gailius, who dared to publish a novel about the interwar period Kaunas. We remember that Kaunas was also called the Casablanca of the North in addition to Little Paris. We are curious about what detective stories Kaunas residents buy in bookstores and borrow from libraries.
We hope that all these reads will inspire you to at least take a long walk around Kaunas, which reveals itself in a new light on the pages of the magazine. We strongly recommend finishing it in the already mentioned white building. Yes, we are talking about our beautiful town hall, where the new Kaunas City Museum exhibition is finally opening in July.
