Kaunas State Philharmonic
Kaunas State Philharmonic, or Kauno valstybinė filharmonija, is the main concert hall in Kaunas, Lithuania. It is housed in the former Palace of Justice and the Parliament (Lietuvos Teisingumo ir Seimo rūmai), at the junction of L. Sapiegos and E. Ožeškienės streets. The building was designed by engineer-architect Edmund Frykas and built between 1925 and 1928. Above the main entrance there was a Latin inscription: Justitia est fundamentum regnorum, meaning “Justice is the foundation of states.”
From 1944 to 1961, Kaunas did not have a permanent concert hall. The Kaunas department of the LSSR National Philharmonic Society used the Great Hall and other venues around the city. In 1961, part of the building and the Great Hall were transferred to the Kaunas Department of the LSSR National Philharmonic Society. In 2006 the department became independent as Kaunas State Philharmonic Society under the Ministry of Culture.
Renovation took place from 2005 to 2008, and the renovated building reopened on October 1, 2008. The project cost about 2.2 million Lithuanian litai. The structure uses brick and ferroconcrete and combines National style, Art Deco and Neoclassical design.
In 2023, Kaunas State Philharmonic became part of UNESCO World Heritage’s Modernist Kaunas: Architecture of Optimism, 1919-1939, designated for Europe under Criteria iv.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:15 (CET).