Old Town
A good starting point for any tour of the old city is the Gates of Dawn, at the southernmost point of the old city. This last remaining part of the old city wall (much of the fortifications in Vilnius were destroyed by the Czar’s army in the 1800s) was converted into a chapel in 1671. A main draw of the chapel is the gold and silver icon of the Virgin Mary, which is revered by Catholics in the region, from Poland to Belarus. The chapel is a mecca to thousands of pilgrims every year. As an act of devotion, some climb the cement steps to the icon on their knees.
Continue down Ausros Vartu and you will pass the Church of the Holy Spirit<.b>, an Orthodox church and site of the Holy Spirit Monastery, part of which has been rented to the Italian Ambassador in order to raise money for the church. Go further down the street and take a left on Stikliu: this area was once the heart of the city’s thriving, prewar Jewish community. A few steps away is the recently-erected monument to the celebrated Jewish scholar, Gaon of Vilnius.
Go straight on Stikliu and you come to Dominikonu and the Dominican Church, one of many supposedly haunted sites in Vilnius. During a plague that swept the land in 1657, a cellar in the monastery was used to accommodate an overflow of corpses. In the late 1800s, area residents began to complain about incessant moaning coming from the cellar area, where, upon investigation, police found hundreds of mummified, long-forgotten bodies. It is said that faint, eerie wailing can still be heard by those passing by the Church in the early morning hours.
Go down the hill on Dominikonu to Universiteto street, site of Vilnius University. You’ll find some of the old city’s most splendid architecture within the grounds of Vilnius University, which was founded by Jesuits in 1579 to stem the influence of the Reformation in Lithuania. The university was closed by Moscow from 1832 to 1917. Today, some 14,000 students attend the school.
Wind your way across the old city on Sv. Mykolo to the 16th century St. Anne’s Church, a fine example of Gothic architecture. When he came through Vilnius, Napoleon is said to have been so taken by St. Anne’s that he wanted to haul it back to Paris and set it down alongside Notre Dame.
From here, you can see the Hill of Three Crosses. Historical rumor has it that seven
Franciscan monks who foolishly tried to convert Lithuanian pagans were murdered here. Four were tossed into the river while three were hung out on the hill to dry. The first crosses were erected in the 1600s to honor the martyrs. Stalin had them torn down; the prewar crosses rest at the foot of the mound where new ones were raised in1989. The hill offers a breathtaking view of the city, especially in the autumn or winter. A winding trail leads from Kalnu Park up steep steps on the south side of the hill to the top.
Heading down Maironio and through the park brings you to another hill. Castle Hill is the site of the oldest settlement in Vilnius, though there isn’t much left to show for it. In the 14th century, Grand Duke Gediminas dreamt he saw an iron wolf howling on this hill, which towers over the old city, between the Neris and Vilnia Rivers. The wolf’s cry signified to him that a great city would arise at this location, and he proceeded to construct it. From the original settlement, only a few structures remain, including the Gediminas Tower—the only major remnant of the 13th century Upper Castle still standing; there is a history museum inside the tower. At the base of the hill is a series of barrel-shaped structures covering the excavation site of the city’s ancient castle, the Lower Castle; the castle was the residence of the nation’s grand dukes for more than three centuries.
Next to the hangars is the Cathedral, originally built as a temple to the thunder god Perkunas. By the 19th century, after scores of transformations, it had been almost completely revamped in neoclassical style. After the Soviet takeover in the 1940s, the Communists turned the church into an art gallery. It was converted back to a church in the late ’80s. The church is still the resting place for many famous figures in the history of Lithuania-Poland, including royalty. Flanking the Cathedral is the distinct Bell Tower, one of the city’s leading landmarks and a favorite meeting place for local Lithuanians.
Other Old City Sights
St. Casimir’s Church: Didzioji 34, off of Rotuses Square. Named after the patron saint of Lithuania, St. Casimir. Because Casimir was in the Lithuanian-Polish royal family, the church is topped by a golden crown. In Czarist days, it was removed and replaced by an onion dome. The crown was restored in the 1920s.
Church of Saints Peter and Paul: Antakalnio 1, just to the northeast of the old city; tel. 234-0229. Although plain from the outside, from the inside this church is truly breathtaking. The walls from top to bottom are alive with frescos in animal and human forms—no two of them exactly the same. This church was originally built in the 14th century, but was then rebuilt in Baroque splendor in the late 1600s. The some 200 artists who worked on the interior were directed by the Italian masters Pietro Peretti and Giovanni Maria Galli.
Presidential Palace: S. Daukanto Sq 3/8, tel. 266-4011. The huge presidential palace, or prezidentura, was built in the 14th century; it has undergone dozens of renovations throughout the centuries, most notably by architect Laurynas Stuoka-Guceviàius. Napoleon stayed here on his way to Moscow in 1812.
Museum of Genocide Victims: at Auku 2a, off of central Gedimino; tel. 249-6264. Open:10-17; Mon. closed. This is one of the only museums of its kind in the former Soviet empire. For a haunting sense of the terror that swept the land under Soviet rule, you’ll want to drop in to this museum in what was the much-feared KGB headquarters until 1991. You can tour actual cells where prisoners were held and tortured. On a recent trip, President Adamkus found the entry for him in the KGB log book, from when he was a prisoner in the building.
Elsewhere in Vilnius
Palace Reconstruction: Katedros Square 4, tel. 261-4063. An ambitious and controversial 100-million-dollar plan will see to the rebuilding of Lithuania’s medieval-era Royal Palace here by 2009. Excavations are complete and drilling is underway. For a small tip, workers at a makeshift museum/souvenir shop here will guide you behind the construction gates and into a lone palace structure.
Pilsudski's Heart: At the Rasu Cemetery on Sukileliu, southeast of the old city. Pre-war Polish leader Jozef Pilsudski, who forcibly incorporated Vilnius into Poland in 1920, always said his heart lay in this city. To prove the point for posterity, he directed that his heart be cut out and buried in Vilnius after his death. His heart's in this cemetery; the rest of him is in Waweï in Krakow.
Vilnius TV tower: In the Karoliniskes district, northwest of the city center, Sausio 13-osios 10, tel. 252-5333. Open:10-21. The city's TV tower was the site of the bloodiest episode in Lithuania's drive for freedom in the early '90s. In the morning hours of January 13, 1991, Soviet troops stormed the tower, which was surrounded by hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, including many women and teenagers. Thirteen civilians were shot dead or crushed by advancing Soviet tanks. Many historians regard the massacre at the Vilnius TV tower as a landmark event which helped hasten the collapse of the Soviet empire. Crosses and flowers are placed at the base of the tower in memory of those who died; there is also a small exhibition devoted to the massacre inside the tower itself. The street itself was renamed to commemorate the date of the attack.
Vingio Parkas: A 20-minute walk uphill and west from the city center. A vast, beautiful park, once the estate of a prominent Lithuanian aristocrat. Russian Czar Alexander I first heard of Napoleon's invasion in 1812 while at a ball on the estate. The pre-invasion bash was described in Tolstoy's War and Peace. Trails wind through 395 acres of pine forest; an ideal place for a walk or jog. Pleasant in the daytime, but dimly lit at night. In winter, this is a perfect place for cross-country skiing. Most large public events in Vilnius are held somewhere in this park.
Yiddish Vilnius: You wouldn't necessarily know it by walking the streets today, but Vilnius was once one of the cultural centers of the Jewish world. Known before World War II as the Jerusalem of the North, Vilnius was home to more than 60,000 Jews, most of whom spoke Yiddish, a 1000-year-old German dialect. Vilnius was considered the capital of Yiddish culture and learning and was home to the famed Yiddish Institute of Higher Learning (YIVO) and the Strashum Library. The first Jews came to Lithuania in the 14th century, lured to the area by tolerant Lithuanian regimes. On the eve of the war, some 240,000 Jews lived in Lithuania-virtually all of whom were killed during the Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944. Today, there are few reminders of Vilnius' Jewish past, save for Hebrew letters on a gutted, hidden-away building near the train/bus station on Raugyklos street. There are some 6000 Jews left in Lithuania; around 200 of them are Holocaust survivors. Few speak Yiddish anymore, and there are fears that the culture will soon die out completely. For more details and guidance visit the Jewish Museum on Pamenkalnio 12, tel. 262-0730.
Eight kilometers from Vilnius, there's the town of Paneriai. This eerie pine forest became a killing field during the Nazi occupation when up to 100,000 people, mostly Jews, were shot by German soldiers and local collaborators. The pits and trenches where the mass executions and burnings took place are still visible. A small museum recounts the horror. Also, see the Synagogue on Pylimo 39 and the small museum on Pylimo 4. Before the war, there were almost 100 synagogues in Vilnius.
Zappa: What do Frank Zappa and Lithuania have in common? Nothing. But that hasn't stopped Vilnius from erecting a monument to the late great rock legend. The four-meter-high Zappa bust, at Kalinausko 1 (C-4) in the city center, was unveiled in 1995 after intense lobbying by Zappamaniacs. The zany iconoclast, who died several years ago of cancer at the age of 52, achieved cult status in much of the former Communist bloc for his anti-establishment themes. He allegedly intended to visit Lithuania before he died, or so his fans here say. Some older Lithuanians thought the idea of a monument to a quirky American rock star with a penchant for four-letter word lyrics was, at best, nuts. The monument is said to be the first and only one dedicated to Zappa anywhere in the world.
Back to the USSR: The only Soviet nostalgia sight left in Vilnius are the Bridge Statues on Zaliasis Tiltas (B-4), glorifying The Soviet Worker, are gaudy and pompous. They make good landmarks and are memorable backgrounds for tourist photos.
