Hanza Kaunas 2011

Kaunas becomes the capital of merchants

The local government has already started preparing for the international Hanseatic Days to take place after three years.

Darius Rumšas, the organiser of Kaunas Hanseatic Days, notices that such a grandiose festival requires starting to prepare for it immediately, and adds that in 2010, the council of the Hanseatic Towns' Union will converge in Kaunas for a conference. What we will have to do is report the final programme of the festival of the year 2011.

It was already in 1992 that Kaunas presented its proposal to organise the Hanseatic Days that traditionally take place in a different town of the union every year.

"The Hanseatic Days usually gather up to eight thousand representatives of about 120 towns. It is not necessarily the middle ages that the events may carry back to. Last year, for instance, there was an economical forum held and the youth Hanseatic Days organised in the German city Lippstadt", related Rumšas.

A former Kaunas town councillor Justinas Krėpšta, who has participated in Hanseatic festivals, says that the budget devoted to the Hansa festival by other towns is approximately 1.5 million litas. Thus, according to him, it is time to start searching for the sponsors and thinking of guest accommodation.

The organisers hope that they will also manage to raise such an amount of money. Therefore, they are planning to open a special Internet site for the Hansa festival.

Yesterday, at the meeting with the mayor Andrius Kupčinskas, it was decided to gather a special work group and to establish a special public institution for the Hansa festival.

The mayor maintais that, as in 2011 the European Basketball Championship will take place in autumn, the town will gain considerable advantage from organising the Hanseatic Days earlier joining the the festival and the Days of Kaunas City in May. In this way, the championaship and the latter festivals will not have to compete with each other.

Several hundred years ago, Kaunas was a city where rulers and merchants from Western Europe used to make a stop. In 1441-1532, the office of the Hanseatic merchants was operated here.

From the office, wood, grain and wax were exported to Western Europe and a shipyard was open in Aleksotas. Kaunas is, and always have been, the sole town in the country that belongs to the Hanseatic Union.

The information source Kauno diena.