The Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s wars with the Golden Horde along the Black Sea coast led to Vytautas the Great’s resettlement of various Tatars in Lithuania from the end of the 14th century onwards. The Islamic Tatars, or Lipka Tatars as the Tatars from Lithuania and Poland are known, have been living in the region ever since, although their contemporary population is worryingly small as the younger members of the community rapidly assimilate into mainstream Lithuanian society. Kaunas’ Lipka Tatar community built this fine-looking mosque in 1930 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Vytautas’ death to a design by Vaclovas Michnevičius (Polish, Wacław Michniewicz) and Adolfas Netyksas. As befell the fate of most religious buildings during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the mosque was converted to other uses (in this case as a circus and then a storage library) before being restored to its original use. Stepping inside is something of a shock for those who’ve been visiting churches all day, reminding one more of Kabul than Kaunas. Interestingly, new life is being breathed into the mosque thanks to a new wave of Muslim immigrants to the city.