Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and has a estimated population of over 500,000 people in the urban area alone. Legends associate the city with Voruta, the city of King Mindaugas of Lithuania during the 13th Century. The first written mention of Vilnius dates back to 1323, when Grand Duke Gediminas sent out invitations to German cities inviting Jewish-German citizens to settle in the capital city.
In the early 16th Century, Vilnius was bordered by walls which comprised nine gateways into the city, along with three lookout towers. Vilnius had a period of heightened development during the reign of Sigismund August, who relocated his court to the city in 1544. Over the years to come, Vilnius constantly grew and evolved, partly due to the establishment of Vilnius University in 1579. This university quickly became one of the leading scientific and cultural hubs of the area.
During all of this rapid development, Vilnius allowed free entry to immigrants from all over the region, the continent and perhaps the world. Each incoming influence made its unique contribution to the lifestyle, craftwork, trading habits and scientific knowledge of the steadily-expanding capital, which prospered a great deal as a result.
Then, during the Russo-Polish War from 1654 - 1667, Vilnius suffered from Russian occupation, during which the city was looted and burned, with the accompanying massacres. Though these events definitely made a dent in the momentum of the city’s growth, by the start of the 19th Century the population had reached an impressive 200,000, which put it among the biggest in Europe.
Vilnius was again overtaken by Russia in 1795, after which the city walls were demolished, leaving only the Dawn Gate behind. In 1812, Vilnius was conquered by Napoleon during his campaign towards Moscow. After what’s known as the November Uprising in 1831, Vilnius University was shut down and more extreme levels of Russian occupation hindered any further development. The situation further deteriorated as conflict and outright brawling sometimes overtook the area, and eventually all civil liberties were revoked, and even the usage of Polish and Lithuanian tongues was not allowed.
World War I saw Vilnius along with the entirety of Lithuania being occupied by the Germans. However, The Act of the Restoration of Independence of Lithuania was enacted on February 16, 1918, and after the German troops withdrew, the Lithuanian army was forced into retreating by advancing Russian occupation forces. Thereafter, Vilnius was controlled by anti-Russian-Bolshevik Polish self-defense units for a short time, then the Polish Army, and then the Soviet troops once again.
Finally, the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 saw the defeat of the pesky Red Army, and Russia gave the city back to Lithuania on July 12th of that year. But the fight was still not over. On October 9, 1920, only three months after gaining their independence, the Polish Army broke their treaty with Lithuania and overtook Vilnius as part of a staged coup d’etat. In early 1922, the city and its surroundings were made part of Poland. At that time, Poles and Jews made up the majority of the city’s demographic, with a surprisingly minute Lithuanian minority of less than one percent.
What followed was a period of relative stability, engendering yet another period of speedy development, with Vilnius University re-opened and the city’s infrastructure improving greatly. However, despite this picture of economic growth and evolution, many Lithuanian commentators like to point out that the standard of living during this era was quite a bit lower than that in other parts of Lithuania which weren’t suffering from the occupation. Then came World War II.
In 1939, Vilnius was once again seized by the Soviet Union, and the Lithuanian government decided to accept Soviet military bases located across the country in exchange for restoration of the city to Lithuania. So, by the summer of 1940, the entirety of Lithuania was occupied by Russia, and a new Communist government was installed with Vilnius as its capital. Worse still, tens of thousands of citizens in Vilnius alone were sent to gulags in the eastern part of the USSR.
The plot thickens ever further, as the city was soon thereafter overtaken by Germany once again, and this time brought further horrors. Two ghettos were set up for the large Jewish population, one of which was terminated by October of 1941. The other ghetto remained for another couple years, though regular murders occurred during this period and their numbers began to dwindle. A failed uprising in 1943 was quickly followed by the ultimate destruction of the ghetto, and more than 90% of the 265,000 Jewish citizens of Lithuania were killed by the Germans by the end of World War II.
In 1944, Vilnius was retaken by Russia and incorporated into the Soviet Union as the capital of the Lithuanian SSR. Many Poles were expelled from the country back to Poland, and combined with an influx of native Lithuanians into Vilnius, the result was a major change in the demographics of the city. Soviet rule, however, lasted all the way to 1990, when the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR declared its independence from the Soviet Union. The Soviets responded by sending in troops, and on January 13th the following year, the Soviet Army’s attack on the State Radio and Television Building and the Vilnius TV Tower resulted in 14 civilian deaths and over 700 badly wounded. Finally, Russia recognized Lithuanian independence in August of 1991.
In the intervening years, Vilnius has emerged as a modern European city, as many of its buildings have been renovated and the New City Center became the main administrative and business district of the city. In 2009, Vilnius will be the capital of European Culture. This event has been prepared for with the historical centre of the city getting a restoration and main monuments seeing a renewal.
Highlights of the city
Vilnius is rife with diverse architecture, having over 40 churches and many new restaurants, hotels and museums appearing since Lithuania declared its independence. Like many Medieval cities, Vilnius developed around a central Town Hall. Narrow, winding streets and cozy courtyards evolved out of the radial expansion of Medieval Vilnius. Its Old Town area is one of the largest in Europe, almost four square kilometers, and the best historical and cultural attractions are to be found here. The nearly 1,500 buildings in the Old Town area were constructed over the course of several centuries, resulting in a wonderful mix of different styles. Along with Baroque architecture, you’ll see Gothic, Renaissance and many other examples. The Old Town of Vilnius was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994, and in 1995 the first statue of Frank Zappa in the world was erected near the city centre.
There are a large number of active and open churches in the city, along with small enclosed monasteries and religious academies. Known by many as Yerushalayim De Lita (translated as "Jerusalem of Lithuania"), Vilnius was once second best to Jerusalem in terms of Torah study and its large Jewish population. At the beginning of the 20th Century, there were more than a hundred synagogues in Vilnius. However, all of this Jewish activity in Vilnius was destroyed during the Holocaust, and there’s a memorial stone dedicated to victims of the Nazis in the middle of the former Jewish Ghetto, now located at Mesiniu Street.
Please wait...
(0) 871 284 47 50