Flights Vilnius Lithuania

After flying in from your many choices of flights Vilnius Lithuana at the Southernmost point of the old city is a great place to start exploring.  The Gates of Dawn is the last remaining part of the old city wall.  Unfortunately much of the fortifications in Vilnius were destroyed by the Czar’s army in the 1800s and has since been 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, 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 in 1989.  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.

Trakai is located 28 km west of Vilnius. There are many lakes in the region. Trakai Castle & Museum of 15th century (in the middle of Lake Galve) is the only insular castle throughout Eastern Europe. Island castle is one of the most visited historical-architectual monuments in Lithuania. In the 13th century Kernave was probably the first Lithuanian state capital. At that time it was a wooden town of feudal artisans and merchants and one of the major economic centers of the country. Five fortified mounds served to protect the Duke’s castle and the town. There are more than one thousand of these ancient mounds in Lithuania , but this is the only place where you will find so many of them together.