Powiat in Trakai Voivodeship in 1413. Vytautas ceded Kaunas the right to own
the scales used for weighing the goods brought to the city or packed on site,
wax processing, and woolen cloth trimming facilities. The power of the
self-governing Kaunas was shared by three interrelated major institutions:
vaitas
(the Mayor), the Magistrate (12 lay judges and 4 burgomasters) and the
so-called Benchers' Court (12 persons). Kaunas then began to gain prominence,
since it was at an intersection of trade routes and a river port. In 1441
Kaunas joined the Hanseatic League, and Hansa merchant office Kontor was opened
- the only one in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. By the 16th century, Kaunas
also had a public school and a hospital and was one of the best-formed towns in
the whole country.
In 1665, the Russian
army attacked the city several times, and in 1701 the city was occupied by the
Swedish army. The Black Death struck the area in 1657 and 1708, and fires
destroyed parts of the city in 1731 and 1732.
Russian Empire
After the final
partition of the Polish–Lithuanian state in 1795, the city was taken over by
the Russian Empire
