Today was my first day of tourism in Vilnius; I will spend another day here at the end of the trip, so hope to complete then what I wasn't able to accomplish today. Because even though I put in over 25,000 steps and saw a lot as you'll see below, there were some significant things I am still missing.
Hotel
The day started at my hotel, of course. I'm staying at the Artagonist Art Hotel in Old Town. My room only has a twin bed, but it was comfortable and most of the time I spend here is either sleeping or typing missives like this, so it's fine. It does indeed have some interesting art on the wall and the hotel booklet features a double-page spread describing my room as follows:
"Room 306 welcomes the viewer by asking geometric questions about love. To be precise, it is done by the application of textile work, where the pyramids of glossy and matt [sic] materials form a character of flat surface. Look at them from the different perspectives of a room -- a piece of art is changing while moving as if it was alive."
Okay, but not following how it relates to love. Does its presence in a room with a twin bed signal the absence of love? Longing to fill a love void? You can see why I was up all night pondering this. [Kidding; slept like a rock.]
The room has some interesting touches, including a rather high-tech built-in safe drawer, a carafe of water with a charcoal device lurking in the bottom and, my personal favorite, one of the Chemex coffee brewers. I've always wanted to try the Chemex and made an exception to being caffeine free in order to try it out today. Not bad.
Literatu Gatve
This little street (more like an alley) is right around the corner from the hotel and has over 200 pieces of artwork crafted in ceramic, sculpture, glass and other media mounted into the walls. Each is very unique and represents a valued literary contributor, both from Lithuanian and abroad.
Uzupis
The Uzupis neighborhood is unique in several respects, not least of which is that it declared itself an independent republic in 1997. It's not clear entirely what that means as it is recognized by no governments, has no embassies. But does have a constitution that contains things like, "Don't Fight," "A dog has the right to be a dog," "People have the right to be happy" and "People have the right to be unhappy." They also have a flag, the color of which varies by season (I'll let you guess which respective seasons are represented by green, yellow, red and blue for extra credit). What IS clear is that there are quite a lot of artists and creative types in the area. I noted a few unique things such as a bench swinging beneath a bridge over Vilnia River (for which the city is named), some art installed in said river, and a random bathtub in a crazily painted walkway that appears to have been used in the murder of grapes.
Bernadine Garden and Church of St. Francis and St. BernardJust across the river from Uzupis is the beautiful Bernadine Garden with several fountains, beautiful gardens, lots of benches from which to watch the world go by and even a life size chess board that unfortunately wasn't in use at the time. The gardens are related to the Bernadine monastery and church next door. The church was originally constructed in the 1500s but reconstructed in the early 1600s and incorporated into the Vilnius defensive wall, so there are actually openings in it to shoot approaching invaders. That perhaps wasn't enough, because in the mid 1600s during a war with Moscow, Cossacks killed the monks and citizens who had taken shelter there.
St. Anne's Church
This church is adjacent to the Bernadine church, but couldn't be more different, at least from the outside. It is considered an interesting example of Gothic architecture in Lithuania. The guidebook says that it is a "prominent example of both Flamboyant Gothic and Brick Gothic styles." I'm not sure what the difference is, but will take their word on it. The original church that was built for Anna, the first wife of Vytautas the Great. Unfortunately, it was wooden and burned in a fire in the early 1400s. This brick version was constructed from the mid to late 1400s and hasn't really changed since then though there have been structural reinforcements. Of note, Napoleon saw the church during the War of 1812 (yes, I have the 1812 Overture going through my mind right now, too) and is said to have said he wanted to carry it home with him to Paris.
There's more interesting history. There is a square here where the Lithuanian Freedom League held a rally to protest the ongoing Soviet occupation in 1987, which was put down by the militia in short order.
Hill of Three Crosses
So there's an old story/legend that 14 Franciscan friars came to Vilnus but talked smack about some Lithuanian gods, so angry citizens killed them all -- seven were crucified and thrown into a river and the other seven were beheaded on Bleak Hill. Yeah, so.... Regardless of whether that's entirely true, three crosses were erected on Bleak Hill, likely in the early 1600s, and were periodically replaced due to the wooden crosses rotting. So in the early 1900s, a concrete monument was erected, but it was torn down by the Soviets in the 1950s. During the Lithuanian independence movement, the current monument was created on the same site, but the crosses are significantly larger than the older monument.
As a personal note, if you go there, I can't say I'd recommend you take the route up there from the Bernadine Garden direction. It's a series of neverending wooden steps that really tests one's endurance and stairmastering skills. Gorgeous views, though, so well worth the climb.
Church of Saints Peter and PaulThis one was a bit out of the way, but gorgeous nevertheless. It was the only one that specifically requested a donation, which I was happy to provide. Gorgeous details.
Gediminas TowerOne of the things I have noticed in general in Vilnius are the number of streets and some sidewalks that are crafted from stones set in concrete. It looks nice, but makes you wish for the simple joys of only catching a heel in cobblestones. If you weren't stable, it could be really difficult. And when you add a steep climb the level of difficulty dramatically increases, as I saw on the climb up to Gediminas Tower. Now, apparently they have had enough fat Americans and other tourists to have created a funicular which will haul you up the side of the hill for EUR 1 (return trip sold separately). However, there is a bunch of construction going on and, whether related to that or something else, the funicular was not running today (I would've walked anyway, to be clear -- I'm not scheduled for funicular fun until Kaunas). This trek is nothing to Lithuanians, though, as illustrated by women hiking up there in pumps!
Vilnius Cathedral and towerThe site of this beautiful cathedral was a place of pagan worship (there's some history on Lithuanian and paganism and conversion to Christianity not necessarily coming from a religious interest). There have been various cathedrals built on the site and fires either burning down or damaging them. It seems like the current one was after a rebuilding in the early 1600s. In any event, it is a key element of Vilnius as well as Lithuanian history, with several coronations taking place there and famous Lithuanian leaders and relatives buried there.
This is where Pope Francis addressed the people yesterday, so there was still a lot of activity today to tear down stages and remove barriers.
Palace of the Grand DukesNot unlike the Vilnius Cathedral, the Palace of the Grand Dukes has a long history with various construction phases. There were three castles -- the Upper Castle, Lower Castle and Crooked Castle. The latter was burned down during an attack by the Teutonic Order in the late 1300s and wasn't rebuilt. The others survived in various states until being significantly damaged in the Battle of Vilnius in 1655. There's more history, but essentially nothing really survived intact to the present day except the Gediminas Tower (see above). The current National Museum of Lithuania is built over the ruins of the castle complex that are visible and discussed in detail, which is pretty interesting (who knew they had a sewer system?).
The museum offers four different "tours" and you either shell out the EUR 6 for all four, or buy them piecemeal. I figured I could do all four, but underestimated the historic detail and information provided and I wanted to read all of that, so just barely finished two tours. But here are my favorite tidbits:
Sigismund the Old seems like a ruler ahead of his time as some of his actions seem like something we might discuss today. Specifically:
- In 1507, the government decided that a register of all the noblemen and their lands should be drawn up in order to calculate how many soldiers each had to provide for the war effort. Penalties for nobles who avoided military service were set.
- To increase cash needed for wars and other expenses, he issued regulations that reduced the amount of taxes that peasants could pay in labour and in kind. Unclear where peasants were supposed to come up with cash, though. He also tried to make estate managers more accountable and reduce abuse and the misappropriation of funds. Please tell me he also hired forensic accountants....
Sigismund the Old also was the first Lithuanian ruler to marry an Italian and that changed quite a few things. Not only did his wife, Bona Sforza, bring renaissance ideas to Lithuania, she also installed Italian chefs and introduced things like tomatoes and lemons to the country. She was also not one to be messed with. She was attacked by a bear, but was rescued and saved, but it forced her to give birth to a premature baby who did not survive. The animal thing wasn't only her issue, though. A few generations later, Cecilia Renata, Ladislaus Vasa's first wife, was watching a dog-and-bear fight (apparently this was a thing?) and was apparently not the sharpest knife in the drawer as she was mutilated by a bear when she went to look at a bear that had retreated. It caused her to give birth to a stillborn and died herself the next morning. Well, at least that's what the exhibit in the museum said. Wikipedia doesn't mention the bear mauling and says she died the day after her stillborn daughter, "as a consequence of an infection, likely related to her recent childbirth." Or from bear germs. Who can say?
Vilnius University bell towerThe university campus is supposed to be quite nice but it was closed by the time I get there (you pay about EUR 2 for the privilege of walking around). BUT their bell tower was still open for a whopping EUR 2.50. Hmmm. So in I went. The nutshell version is that you can take an elevator up four floors and see some nice views through a wire mesh. Not so exciting. That's because if you want excitement and unobstructed views, you take a slightly irregular wooden staircase up another level or so. And then basically kind of have to haul yourself up out of a hole that would be an OSHA nightmare and lawyer's dream in some other country. But once you got through that, you could venture out on a balcony that went around the tower and allowed you to take some stunning panoramic pictures. While you tried to forget that you'd have to crawl back down that hole. Totally worth the EUR 2.50.
Gate of Dawn
Back in the 1500s, city gates (some sources say 9, others say 5) were added as defensive fortifications for the city. The Gate of Dawn is the only one that has survived. The gates often contained religious artifacts to protect the city from attach and to bless travelers passing through the gates (except, one assumes, those who were traveling in to attack). This gate has a painting by an unknown artist of the Virgin Mary that is covered with a silver gilt setting. The gate and the image have become icons for Vilnius. Pope John Paul II visited here and, just yesterday, Pope Francis passed under this gate (I was on the other side when I took my video) on his exit from the cathedral.
Bastion Hill
In the 1700s this bastion fortification was created as part of the defensive wall for Vilnius. The building that has been reconstructed wasn't open when I went by, but I was intrigued by it and the portion of the original walls versus what has apparently been redone.
I think that's enough for one day. Tomorrow I am off to Siauliai.
