 The City of Kaunas was chosen as its site, since the historic capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, was part of Poland between 1920 and 1939.A design competition was held in 1928 and the proposal drawn up by Karolis Reisonas was chosen for the church as the best.Due to the technical difficulties arising from the grand scope of the design, and dramatic escalation of its cost estimates, the final design was not approved until 1933.