LITHUANIA

CONTINENTAL DRIFTER
19th Installment: Vilnius, Lithuania by Elliott Hester
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According to Lithuanian legend, when Grand Duke Gediminas went hunting and killed a wild ox, he fell asleep at the foot of a hill and dreamed of an iron wolf that howled with the ferociousness of 100 wolves. A pagan priest told Gediminas that the dream was in fact a prophecy. The Duke had been chosen to build a castle on the hill and establish an unconquerable city, a city with the vigor of an iron wolf.
 
Sometime in the early 1320s, therefore, Gediminas erected the castle on what is now Gediminas Hill. At the foot of the hill he founded Vilnius, a city he named after the Vilnia River which flows through its heart.
 
Although the castle lay in partial ruins, and Lithuania lost it's bid to be impregnable (it was occupied by Germans and Russians for 50 years before regaining independence in 1991), Vilnius' old town maintains an architectural legacy that the Grand Duke would be proud of.
 
Indeed, with more than 1.5 thousand antiquated structures, this is one of the largest old towns in Eastern Europe. So precious are the many 16th- and 17th-century structures, UNESCO named the area a World Heritage site.
 
Although the city is often touted as a Baroque wonderland, the buildings are a blend of many architectural styles. The numerous Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, for example, display Classical, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque designs. Most can be appreciated during a casual day-long walk.
 
Starting from my base at the City Park Hotel in the city center, I crossed the street to Cathedral square, where skateboarders and Frisbee aficionados congregate on a daily basis. Towering above them is Vilnius Cathedral.
 
Having suffered damage from storms, floods, and fires since it was erected on the site of a pagan sanctuary some 600 years ago, the Cathedral underwent multiple reconstructions and renovations. The result is architectural schizophrenia.
 
The front and side façades are lined with huge, Classically designed columns. Behind the columns, some sculptures show evidence of Vilnius Baroque (a style reminiscent of ancient Roman and Greek architecture). Other sculptures, such as those depicting 7 of the grand dukes, are fashioned in decorative Rococo.
 
While 4 Doric columns rise above the Cathedral's high altar, St. Casimir's Chapel (one of 11 interior chapels) boasts pink and white marble walls, silver-plated statues, and white stucco relief work on the wooden pulpit and the frescoed cupola. The overstated ornamentation is a tribute to high Baroque.
 
Walking along the south side of the Cathedral, I turned right on Pilies Gatve (Castle Street), the main entrance to Old Town. The hub of café and restaurant life, Pilies is adorned with antique lanterns and flower-lined balconies that jut out handsomely across the winding cobblestone lane.
 
Farther along, where Pilies Gatve becomes Didzioji Gatve, the neo-Byzantine Russian Orthodox Church of St. Paraskeva is worthy of note. It was here in 1705 that Peter the Great baptized Abrahm Hannibal, the Ethiopian former slave who went on to become a general in Peter's Russian army. (Hannibal is also the great-grandfather of Russia's beloved poet, Alexander Pushkin.)
 
Another Russian Orthodox sanctuary, the Church of St. Michael, is only a few steps away. Fire destroyed the old Gothic church that originally stood on this site. It was rebuilt in the Baroque style, but in 1865 the church endured another reconstruction. This time the tribute went to Russian Byzantine. Still, the walls, façade and interior exhibit many Gothic details.
 
A vision in soft pink Baroque, the Church of St. Casimir is famous for it's crown-shaped cupola which can be seen from all across the city. Ironically, the church spent 20 years as a museum of atheism while Lithuania was under Soviet rule.
 
A few blocks away, the Church of St. Anne is perhaps Vilnius' most durable house of worship. Virtually unchanged since its unveiling at the turn of the 16th century, the ornate design is often referred to as "flamboyant Gothic". The building flaunts pointed-arch windows, slender pinnacled towers, and 33 varieties of decorative bricks.
 
Local legend claims that when Napoleon first laid eyes on St. Anne's, he wanted to place it in his palm and bring it back to Paris. In truth, Bonaparte and his French Calvary made use of the building when they marched into town in 1812, en route to a defeat in Moscow.
 
It's a jaw-dropping experience to walk among the architectural wonders of Vilnius. When I stepped into the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, however, my jaw dropped to an unfathomable depth. The church is a dream in Baroque.

Although the church exterior is unremarkable, the interior is graced with more than 2,000 white stucco statues and relief works. Biblical, mythical and historic figures leap from the walls: a resurrected Jesus Christ, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Peter, St. Paul, cherubs, demons, mythical animals, and everyday people caught between pain and repose.
 
The arched ceiling is no less elaborate. Delicate frescos appear to be held in place by the outstretched hands of floating children. They in turn are surrounded by hundreds of protruding faces. One such face, a representation of God, looms from the ridge of the cupola. From this perspective the statues and reliefs are arranged in complex groupings.
 
All of the city's architectural treasures are not of a religious nature, however. Vilnius University, the Presidential Palace, Town Hall, and numerous estates and single family homes are awe-inspiring examples of endurance and design.

Although Grand Duke Gediminas may have failed in his prophetic quest to build an unconquerable city, he managed to lay the groundwork for what has become an architectural "iron wolf" of Eastern Europe.

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Next stop: Rome, Italy.

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