Kernavė is not one isolated castle mound but a protected cultural landscape of hill forts, settlement layers, cemeteries and the Pajauta Valley beside the River Neris. About 35 kilometres northwest of Vilnius, the reserve preserves evidence of human activity extending from the late Palaeolithic period to the Middle Ages. UNESCO inscribed the 194.4-hectare archaeological site in 2004 for its unusually complete record of Baltic settlement and its impressive medieval defensive system.
The five grass-covered hill forts create the best-known skyline. In the thirteenth century they protected an important town of rulers, craftspeople and merchants during the formation of the Lithuanian state. Kernavė appears in written sources in 1279. Attacks by the Teutonic Order culminated in the late-fourteenth-century destruction of the medieval town; later settlement shifted north, helping preserve archaeological layers in the valley.