Trakų Street in Vilnius

The Russian Orthodox Church of St. Parasceve (or Piatnickaya Church) is located in the centre of Vilnius' Old Town where a Russian Orthodox Church stood since the times of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Algirdas in the mid-14th centurySt. Parasceve Russian Orthodox Church is the oldest surviving Russian Orthodox Church in Lithuania located in the former Russian quarter of the Old TownThe church was reconstructed in the mid-19th century by the famous Russian architect N. ChaginAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2021

The Town Hall hosted a court, archive, weapons depository, as well as a prison for artisans that had broken the law. Burgomasters also held meetings in the Town Hall, as did the Council of Merchants Since 1991, Vilnius Old Town Hall once again is functioning as a place for holding important events like art exhibitions, concerts, conferences, meetings, etcIn the Middle Ages, the Town Hall Square was a place where physical punishment was carried out. There were gallows and a scaffold nearby, where executions were carried outAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

A museum operates today in the House of Signatories, along with a memorial hall where the act of Lithuania's independence was signed on February 16th, 1918 when Lithuania was under the German occupation and administration during WWI (1915-1918)The first floor of the house with statues symbolizing agriculture and fishing is very decorative. Niches on the second floor hold two male bustsHaving acquired this house in the late 19th century, Karol Sztral reconstructed it according to architect Aleksei Polozov's project in the style of HistoricismAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic

A small doorway in a plain building at Pilies (Castle) Street leads through a vaulted passage into a large yard. The yard was the original place of the Botanical Garden of the Vilnius University. It was founded by a French botanist, Jean Gilibert, in 1782The Botanical Garden remained in this yard for 10 years when it was transferred to Sereikiškių Park, and as well as provided accommodation for the university professors. Before becoming the Botanic Garden, the buildings around had been a college for noblemen. After the university was closed in the mid-19th century, the buildings were used by the Medical AcademyThe yard is the best and most probably the single place in Vilnius from where to admire the spectacularly decorated top of the apse of the Church of St. John's (the church in the grand courtyard of the University of Vilnius)All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav ...

The church received its current form in 1738-1749 after fires in the cityThe church was rebuilted by Vilnius Baroque architect J. K. Glaubitz in the ornate Late Baroque style, and installed 24 altars insite The church bell tower received its current shape in 1737. The bell tower is 68 m tall. It is the tallest building in Vilnius Old TownAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

An idea to designate this small street a memorial site to writers began to be implemented in 2008Literatų Street No. 5: The Piasecki house built in the late 18th century. In 1823, having arrived from Kaunas, Adam Mickiewicz resided here at the invitation of the parents of his friend Kazimierz Piasecki. On the pediment of the entry arch a memorial plaque with a Polish inscription is set up; plaques with Lithuanian and Russian inscriptions are set below on both sides of the arch In the 19th century there were many bookshops on this street, hence its nameAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

The organ, made by famous German master Adam G. Casparini in 1776, is one of the most valuable cultural monuments of Lithuania. The organ itself is the only surviving original 18th-century instrument in LithuaniaThe church has many Baroque frescoes. In the cupola, there is a multi-figural composition "Apotheosis of the Holy Spirit" (neo-Baroque, 19th century)The altars and the pulpit are lavishly decorated with round and relief sculptures and ornamentation All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

The north wing of the Library Courtyard with the building of the Faculty of History of the Vilnius UniversityThe entrance to the Central Library of the Vilnius University is decorated by the memorial door in 2001 for the 450 year anniversary of the first book printed in the Lithuanian language (1547)The main building with the main entrance to the Vilnius University with the Rector Office seen from the Library CourtyardAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The church was financed by Grand Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Hetman, and Vilnius Voivode - Lew Sapieha, who had converted to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism. He was one of the most influential nobles in the Grand Duchy of LithuaniaLew Sapieha gave the church and surrounding buildings for the Bernardine nuns to have a convent and built a Sapieha family mausoleum in the churchThe convent was also a place where the daughters of rich aristocrats were taught. Today, the Church Heritage Museum operates in the churchAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

Originally, the Vilnius Lower Castle's jurisdictional court and administration was housed in this building during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 18th century it was reconstructed into a weapons store-house and militarry baracks. Today, the museum holds the most important archaeological, historical, and ethnic cultural collections of Lithuania that cover Lithuania's history from the Stone Age to the present-day. In front of the building is a monument to King Mindaugas In 2003, a monument to King Mindaugas was erected in the square in front of the building of New Arsenal (today Lithuanian National Museum)In the 19th century, an entrance in the Classical style was biultAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

The church was built on the north side of the Lukiškių Square in 1624. However, the present building dates from the late 17th-18th cent.It is a single-nave Baroque church with cylindrical vaults. An image of the miraculous painting of the 18th century high altar occupies the niche above the porticoThe niches hold wooden 18th cent. statues of St. Hyacinth and St. Dominic. During the Soviet times there were designs to demolish the church but it did not ever happenAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

A semi-circular corridor of the Bastion of Vilnius, where cannons were lined up at embrasures, was called a casemate. A special platform with a parapet for heavy artillery was built on the terrace of the bastionA 48-m long, 2,8-m wide and 3,5 m high impressive tunnel leads from the tower to the underground casemate. Cannons brought to the tower would be rolled down this tunnelThe main part of the Bastion of Vilnius is the casemate. It is an underground horseshoe-shaped room for cannons. The casemate forms a semicircle around a 3-4 metre-high hill heightened with sand. From the outside the façade is 8 m high, and sloping, and is built from bricksAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The church is an elegant late Baroque monument built-in 1702-1730. It is made even more attractive by an asymmetrical monastery ensemble in 1713-1730The towers date from the mid-18th century. They end in rococo domes with lanterns Both the church and the monastery belonged to the Jesuit Order. The monastery was intended for the Jesuit monks with 10 years of service experience seeking to become professed Jesiuts, i.e., to make the last ceremonial vowes All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

The building in Vilnius Street in Vilnius No. 25 in which Jonas Basanavičius died in hospital on February 16th, 1927. The day of his death coincided with the anniversary of the Independence Act in 1918A memorial plaque on the building informs that in this building in 1909 the Editorial Board of the oldest Lithuanian newspaper "Lithuanian News" started to work Another memorial plague on the building as this building housed a music school, where the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz studied in 1905-1909 All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2022

After being baptized in 1251 into the Roman Catholicism in 1251, Grand Duke Mindaugas built the first cathedral in Vilnius on the site of the present-day Cathedral Basilica (Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Vladislaus). Before that, in pagan times an altar, a sacred fire or even a Perkūnas sanctuary was located on the site of today's Cathedral Basilica The creation of the Lithuanian state started as late as the 13th century. Its first outstanding ruler Mindaugas was baptized in 1251 and crowned King of Lithuania on July 6th, 1253. Today, July 6th is a national holiday of Lithuanian statehood It is assumed that it was Mindaugas who built the first Cathedral in Vilnius. Traces of the original Cathedral incorporating Romanesque style features have been discovered in the vaults of the present Cathedral. After Mindaugas's death, the Christian (Roman Catholic) Cathedral was turned into a place of pagan worship. The author ...

In 1986 the east winf of the Old Arsenal was restored. It houses the Museum of Applied Art and Design. The Old Arsenal enables the visitors to feel the ambience of the Renaissance Vilnius The building of the Old Arsenal was remodelled by Sigismund Augustus (second half of the 16th century) in the Renaissance style, mainly by adding a third floor (the attic), decorated in double arch niches. In was an enormous building, reputed to be the largest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth  The Old Arsenal was badly damaged during the war with Russia in 1655-1661, and remained a virtual ruin until the late 18th century when in 1780 was rebuilt and burned down at the end of WWIIAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The family of the noblemen Chodkiewicz bought a house that stood on this site, and transformed it into a Renaissance residenceGrand Hall of the Vilnius Picture Gallery in former Chodkiewicz PalaceThe Classicist interior of the palace is a notable feature of the building of former Chodkiewicz Palace, today the Vilnius Picture GalleryAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

It is one of the most attractive Russian Orthodox churches in Vilnius: the exterior is a profusion of shining onion-shape domes; but the interior is remarkably serene. The interior's simplicity is interupted only by an elaborate iconostasis The internal space is created by two huge pairs of parallel semi-circular arches, intersecting at the top under the central dome which is also the main source of lightA panel on the right of the iconostatis depicts the two saints, both from noble families in the Middle Ages, to whom the church is dedicatedAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The life and work of Dr. Jurgis and Marija Šlapelis reflects the life of the region of Vilnius from the second half of the 19th century to 1940. Both of them have been cultural figures in Lithuania. Marija was actress. They published Lithuanian books that were banned at that timeDr. Jurgis and Marija Šlapelis owned the only Lithuanian language bookstore in Vilnius during 1906-1949. The Šlapelis family bought the house in 1926. Before, it was a goldsmith's workshops, and later housed a small holet called the Hotel de Philadelphie, and a wine shop The building is an example of the 17-th century architecture. Dr. Jurgis died in 1941, and Marija in 1977 at the age of 97. After WWII, the house was nationalised, and, therefore, Marija Šlapelis was forced to live in two small rooms upstairs, with the only access to them through another person's quarters. Marija stipulated in her ...