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The most interesting part of town is predictably the Old Town , or Senamiestis , centred around Town Hall Square (Rotuses aikste), on a spur of land between the Neris and Nemunas rivers. The square is lined with fifteenthu and sixteenth-century merchants' houses in pastel stucco shades, but the overpowering feature is the magnificent Town Hall , its tiered Baroque facade rising to a graceful 53-metre tower. Known as "White Swan" for its elegance, this building dates back to the sixteenth century and during its history has been used as an Orthodox church, a theatre and university department, though these days it houses a "Palace of Weddings" with a ceramics museum in the basement. After the town hall the most eye-catching structure on the square is the seventeenth century Jesuit Church (Jezuitu baznyaia) on the southern side. Originally part of a larger college and monastery complex, the church was built in 1666. In 1825 the Russians handed it over to the Orthodox church and later, the Soviets turned it into a trade school, but the Baroque interior remains intact, and the church has recently been reconsecrated. Northeast of the square, the red-brick tower of Kaunas' austere Cathedral (Katedra Basilika) can be seen at the start of Vilniaus gatve. Dating back to the reign of Vytautas the Great, the cathedral was much added to in subsequent centuries. After the plain exterior, the lavish gilt and marble interior comes as a surprise. There are nine altars in total, though the large, statue-adorned Baroque high altar (1775) steals the limelight. Predating the cathedral by several centuries is Kaunas Castle (Kauno pilis), whose scant remains survive just northwest of the square. Little more than a restored tower and a couple of sections of wall are left, the rest having been washed away by the Neris, but in its day the fortification was a major obstacle to the Teutonic Knights. South of the town square, the Perkunas House (Perkuno namas) at Aleksoto 6 is an elaborately gabled red-brick structure, thought to have been built as a Hansa office or possibly a Jesuit chapel, standing on the reputed site of a temple to Perkunas, the pagan god of thunder. From here Aleksoto descends to the banks of the Nemunas and the glowering Vytautas Church (Vytauto baznyaia), built by Vytautas the Great in around 1399. During its long existence it has suffered various indignities, including use as a munitions magazine and potato store, and, like many other Lithuanian churches, it also had a stint as an Orthodox place of worship.
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