Kaunas Castle stands on the bank of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Neris in Kaunas, Lithuania. Its original stone castle is Gothic, built by an unknown hand in the mid-14th century. The Teutonic Order besieged it in March–April 1362, and its garrison of about 400 was defeated after three weeks.
The Teutonic Knights retook the castle in 1384, renamed it Marienwerder, and lost it to the Lithuanians later that year. After 1398 they could no longer reconquer it. The Lithuanian rebuild gave it walls 10–11 feet (3–3.5 m) thick and over 33 feet (10 m) high. In 1408 Kaunas received Magdeburg rights and the castle became an administrative center.
A 16th-century artillery bastion about 130 feet (40 m) in diameter was added. About one-third of the original castle remains, with a round tower and a quadrangular tower, both four stories tall. It now houses a branch of the Kaunas City Museum.
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