July 5-7
Hello everyone!
7 hours on a train, with a quick change halfway in a nondescript village called Mockava, has taken me from Warsaw to another capital city, one with which it has quite a close connection. Like Warsaw, I have also been here before, albeit in 2012 rather than 2008.
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| Gediminas' Tower |
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| Stucco interior of the Peter and Paul Church |
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| The distance between Warsaw (blue) and Vilnius (red) is just under 500 km. The Hill of the Crosses, mentioned later in the blog, is the yellow dot. |
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| Knight at a Statehood Day ceremony |
There is a sort of medieval European charm to Vilnius. It might be its cobbled Old Town streets. It might be its castle tower, squat but soaring above the river on a green mound. It might be the university district: starting in 1579, Vilnius University is the oldest in the region.
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| I scaled the tower in 2012 - long before that, it was made of wood |
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| The Old Town also dates from 1387 |
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| An interesting cross outside the Peter and Paul Cathedral |
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| Churches are also in the university area of the city |
Before that time, the area comprising modern-day Lithuania was strongly pagan. Elements of that are still elements of national pride: whilst here, there was a large folk music and dance festival in the national stadium. Some elements, such as Uzupis, are less revered.
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| Lithuanians are proud of this soup, called šaltibarščiai. It is tasty, but cold. Even though it is summer here, I don't think it's warm enough to justify a cold soup. |
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| The main export is apparently this cheese |
Užupis means ‘other side of the river’, and is a small neighbourhood in the east of Vilnius. It was essentially abandoned and in disrepair after the fall of the USSR; to rectify this, the government offered very low rent. Artistes soon moved into Užupis, and decided that they would create their own republic.
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| Not recognised by anyone |
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| "Border control" - you can get a stamp, but it's not advised! |
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| The constitution. Other nuggets include, "Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation" |
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| The symbol of Užupis is an angel who is standing on an egg |
What Užupis doesn’t have is many churches. Don’t fret, the rest of the city more than makes up for that. Some interesting churches in Old Town include the Church of St Casimir (with a three-handed portrait of a saint), the Church of St John’s (with a 69 metre tall bell tower), and the Cathedral of the Theotokos (one of the oldest Christian churches in the region).
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| The Gate of Dawn is a major pilgrimage site for Catholics in Lithuania |
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| The Church of St Catherine |
The largest and most used is probably the city’s central cathedral. The exterior is unspectacular, and I find the small plaque nearby more interesting. It’s the finishing point of the Human Chain, created in 1989 during the Singing Revolution. People joined hands through the three Baltic capitals (Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius) in protest at the Soviet regime and to call for independence. Over 2 million people in the chain. The plaque below is the finishing point of the chain.
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| Thre are suggestions that this spot was a place of pagan worship in the 13th century |
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| The end point of the Baltic Chain, which at the time was one of the longest human chains in history |
Another cathedral is also a bit ‘meh’ from the outside. Entering the Peter and Paul Cathedral, however, transports you to another world. Over 2000 stucco decorations, all very intricate and creating an incredible 3D effect off the ceilings and walls. I didn’t know about this church, and was stunned by its interior.
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| Looks pretty average from the outside... |
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| The original church was destroyed by the Russians |
There are also quite a few Russian Orthodox churches in Vilnius. One of these is the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit. The inside is ornate and emerald-coloured inside. The outside has a picture of three Catholic saints. Two of these were captured and executed for refusing to renounce Catholicism, performed by hanging them from an oak tree outside. The third saint met a similar grisly fate.
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| The names of the saints were Anthony, Ivan and Eustachius |
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| The green interior of the church |
The other Orthodox church of note has a statue of two hands outside. The long story offered by our walking guide - and one I struggled to stick with due to tiredness from a 3am wake-up to watch England’s World Cup match with Mexico - was connected with Peter the Great. It essentially goes that the Russian overlord baptised an African slave called Gannibal here in order to show his prospective wife that water is safe. Gannibal then ends up becoming a nobleman and has been proven to be the great-grandfather of Pushkin, a famed Russian writer.
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| St Paraskeva Church |
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| The symbol outside is of two hands side-by-side, one for Gannibal and the other for Puskhin |
Many of these churches have crosses, as you would expect. You probably wouldn’t expect an indistinct place a couple of hours northwest of Vilnius to have hundreds of thousands of crosses. All on the same hill. It’s imaginatively named the Hill of Crosses. A cross (pun intended) between place of historical significance and what looks like a scrapyard, it is an extraordinary sight.
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| UNESCO recognises cross-making as a key part of Lithuanian national and religious identity |
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| Estimates of the number of crosses vary wildly, but there are well over 100,000. No, I didn't count them... |
There are legends and facts about this place. The legend is that there was a man with a sick daughter. He was told about a magic hill, put a cross and candle there, said a prayer…and she got better! Can you imagine! The reality is that nineteenth-century Lithuanians were rising up against their Russian masters, who decided to kill many of them and refused to give permission for them to be properly buried. The locals then came to the hill and added crosses in their honour.
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| Two accidental fires since independence have actually have destroyed many crosses |
In their later guise as Soviets, the Russians tried to literally remove the hill with bulldozers. This didn’t happen, and the crosses were restored after Lithuanian independence in 1991. Pope John Paul II visiting two years later helped solidify the Hill of Crosses as a pilgrimage site. It’s remarkable to see how many different nationalities are represented amongst the chaos of the crosses.
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| The story goes that when the bulldozers came, the big boss' daughter drowned on the same day in a nearby lake, which was obviously a sign to not raze the hill |
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| There's a Portuguese flag there if you look closely |
It’s not just Christianity that has been an influence in the modern-day land of Lithuania. For a while in the twentieth century, there was quite a large Jewish quarter. Awfully, Vilnius’ Jewish population were later shunted into two inner city ghettos by the Nazis. The smaller ghetto, housing invalids or the elderly, was only utilised for a few weeks. 30,000 Jews had been murdered in a forest outside of the city. Placards indicate that of the 58,000 Jews who had been in Lithuania at the start of the war, less than 3,000 survived it.
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| These streets were in the ghetto zone |
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| Very different now, with this shop seemingly specialising in macaroons |
After a tumultuous twentieth century, Lithuania seems settled as a relatively small, independent nation. Statehood Day was celebrated whilst I was here. I stumbled upon a concert and cannon firing. Having woken up very early to watch football, the jolt I got from the cannon definitely made me more alert!
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| There was a displa of singing and dancing at this square - I stayed until that large grey cloud decided to rain quite hard on me... |
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| This was a female youth choir |
The country was the first European country to grant women voting rights, in 1918. The centenary of this was celebrated by putting female figures in traffic lights.
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| Nothing says gender equality like a traffic light |
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| Vilnius seemed quite a youthful and outdoorsy city - this complex has a skate park, basketball courts and beach volleyball |
Other quirky things found in Vilnius include a ‘lucky belly’, a memorial to Frank Zappa and a Veuve Clicquot cafe that is locally called ‘Love Story’. Nothing to do with Taylor Swift, it is connected to two rich people who fell in love in Vilnius. I’m guessing they liked flowers…
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| Zappa never went to Lithuania, nor has any connection to the country. Very odd statue. |
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| "It's a love story, baby just say...coffee?" |
Like Poland before, the country is anti-Russian and very pro-Ukrainian. There are over 50,000 Ukrainian refugees in the country, which has a population of about 2.9 million.
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| A sign epitomising the sentiment of the city |
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| Russia is not signed up to the ICJ, so I doubt he cares |
When I left in 2012, I was a bit underwhelmed by Vilnius. Returning as quite a different person in 2026, I can say that it - in pleasant weather, which didn’t always happen - has left a better impression on me. It’s never going to be a major tourist hub, but it isn’t trying to be. It’s got its quirks, from a breakaway republic to a huge number of churches relative to its size, and it is historically and culturally distinct enough to be a good place to spend a couple of days.
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| With a latitude of 54°N, Vilnius has long evenings in July |
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| I had a lovely rainy morning run in Vilnius |
Love you all,
Matt
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