Kaunas City Municipality
Kaunas
Kaunas Fortress fort and environment of the military-technology exhibition
K. Baršausko g. 101, Kaunas
54.89910, 23.96160
1-1.5 hours; longer with a guide or event
daylight, when outdoor military vehicles are easy to view
VI Fort, Sixth Fort
Sixth Fort as a military-technology exhibition site
For many visitors, the Sixth Fort today means the Military Technology Exhibition. This matters: people do not come here only to look at nineteenth-century fort walls, because much of the experience is the outdoor military equipment: tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, and other twentieth-century objects placed in the former fortification territory.
In this setting, military technology feels different than it would in an indoor museum. VLE states that in 2009 the fort was transferred to Kaunas City Municipality for a military-technology exhibition, and from March 2018 the exhibits of the Vytautas the Great War Museum Military Technology Department began moving here.
Sixth Fort: 1882-1889 construction and structure
VLE calls the Sixth Fort one of the strongest masonry forts of Kaunas Fortress. It stands in the right valley of the Nemunas, near Petrasiunai; construction began in 1882 and ended in 1889. The Cultural Heritage Register assigns it code 10397.
The fort is hexagonal, surrounded by defensive ditches with scarp and counterscarp walls. Its casemates include a rear caponier, barracks, ammunition stores, crew shelters with water wells, pre-assault cannon shelters, and the central postern; two caponiers and two half-caponiers defended the ditch. In 1915 the fort was taken by the German army.
The difficult history of the Sixth Fort
The Sixth Fort has not only military-engineering history, but also a history of imprisonment and death. In 1918-1940 a branch of Kaunas Hard Labour Prison operated here; in 1926 four members of the Lithuanian Communist Party accused of treason, known as the Communards, were shot in the fort, and in 1940 Interior Minister K. Skucas and State Security Department director A. Povilaitis were imprisoned here.
In 1941-1944 the Nazi German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag 336 operated in the fort, where VLE states about 35,000 prisoners of war were killed. In 1944-1948 German prisoners of war were held here, and later the Soviet army used the fort as an ammunition depot. Even if you come for the vehicles, remember the memory carried by the site.
What visitors can see in the Sixth Fort
The main highlight is large military technology. It appeals to both children and adults, but a good visit means reading what each vehicle was for, which period it belonged to, and how its function differs from other exhibits.
While visiting the technology exhibition, do not forget the relief itself: ramparts, ditches, casemates, and the fort's position on the edge of the city. The Sixth Fort helps explain how the Tsarist fortress was later reused for other functions and for museum activity.
Opening hours, tickets, and visiting
The Military Technology Exhibition belongs to Vytautas the Great War Museum. At the time of research, the official page stated that visits were only with a guide: Tuesday-Friday 10:00-15:00 hourly, Saturday-Sunday 10:00-15:00, and from May to September additionally at 16:00 and 17:00; phone registration was required. Adult tickets were 6 EUR, school and student tickets 3 EUR, and a family ticket 15 EUR. In the cold season visitors were not admitted inside the vehicles.
Before going, check the official Vytautas the Great War Museum page. If you want to visit both the central War Museum and the Sixth Fort on the same day, plan them as two separate stops in different parts of Kaunas.
