Šiltadaržio St. in Vilnius

End of Stiklų St. on the intersection with Dominikonų St. and Šv. Ignoto St. in the Old Town in VilniusIn Stiklų St. No. 4 stands a typical building with a so-called Courtyard of the Printing House. Its history goes back to the 15th century. In the 16th century it held the Mamonichi printing house. A Gothic building in the courtyard with the exterior and fragments of the interior was reconstructed in 1974. In front of it a sculpture of "The Chronicler" is erected in 1973Wall (right) of the former Russian Orthodox church in Stiklų St. No. 17All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The architect of the Vilnius Bastion is unknown. The building that rose in the early 17th century is attributed to the period of late Renaissance and in that period Vilnius did not have a municipal architectThe wars of the mid-17th century and the 18th century weakened the military power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The army led by the Russian Emperor Aleksey Mikhailovich approached Vilnius in August 1655 and seized the cityWhen Vilnius was liberated in 1660, the city's defensive fortifications needed repair. However, there was not enough funds and the citizens were unable to maintain defensive fortifications, supply them with arms and gunpowder and provide securityAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

Mindaugas Bridge is constructed in 2003. It has the name of the only Lithuanian King crowned on July 6th, 1253On the foothill on the left riverside of Neris, there is a Renaissance building of Old Arsenal followed by the buildings of House of the Castle Keeper and New Arsenal On the right riverside of Neris, a new business center of Vilnius is growing during the last two decadesAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

It was not until 1503 when Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Alexander Jagiellon granted a privilege that the construction of the wall began. The year 1522 is considered to mark the end of the construction, when Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund the Old exempted the residents of Vilnius from the duty of keeping guard at the castle and ordered 24 guards to be posted at the city gatesThe length of the defensive wall was 2,5 kilometres having 10 gates. The wall surrounded the territory of today's Old Town, approximatelly 100 hectars. The foundation of the defensive wall was built of stone, and bricks were mainly used at the level of loopholes and higher. The was was adapted for defence with gunpoweder-operated firearms Until the late-18th century, the Vilnius defensive wall was frequently renovated. The wall served for the last time in 1794 during the uprising led by ...

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

A building of Jewish Center of Culture and Information in the area of the Large Jewish Ghetto in 1941-1943. In this house a famous Vilnius resident Dr. Tzemach Shabad livedTzemach Shabad (1864-1935) was not only a good doctor, but a societal and community figure, and humanist as well. A monument (in 2007 erected) to him on the territory of WWII Large Jewish GhettoA plaque of a plan of the Jewish Ghetto in 1941-1943. There were Small and Large Jewish Ghettos existing from September 6th, 1941 to September 23rd, 1943. Today, September 23rd is the National Memorial Day for the Holocaust/Genocide of the Lithuanian Jews All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

The museum is located in the north wing of the Old Arsenal and looks at Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age Lithuania followed by the various tribes that inhabited the area until they combined to form a state in the 13th centuryThe museum displays object found in burial sites, such as pins, amulets, rings, brooches, knives or necklaces. You can as well as see regional dressses of Lithuanian tribes before the formation of the state in the mid-13th century The museum shows a hoard of some 16.000 17th-century coins found in 1999 in Vilnius. It is believed that the hoard may have been hidden during the 1700-1721 Great Northen War. Nevertheless, it is the largest collection of old coins to be found in Lithuania All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

Alumnatas Courtyard was the location for the student dormitory of a pontifical seminary in which seminary students (alumni) and future Greek Catholic (Uniate) priests lived. The courtyard is located in the Monastery Quarter of Vilnius very close to the Old Campus of Vilnius University and Presidential Palace (Prezidentura). Alumnatas (the Greek Catholic/Uniate) Courtyard in probably the most impressive and beautiful courtyards in Old Town of VilniusIn the mid-17th century, the courtyard was remodelledin an Italian Renaissance style , along with a chapelLater the buldings around Alumnatas Courtyard passed to Vilnius UniversityAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

Of the two wings, only the east one is open to the public. It is used as a venue for art-exhibitions, usually for work by contemporary artistsThe east wing was given a tower in the mid-19th century. As viewing a show, visitors can admire its lavishly decorated rooms, with their elaborate woodwork and intricately painted walls and ceilingsThe most magnificent building is the eastern maintenance building, in which the interiors of the second half of the 18th century have been restoredAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2021

The Church of the Heart of Jesus is a significant monument of Baroque (finished in 1756). It is the only Roman Catholic church in Lithuania to be built along a Greek Orthodox cross designThe church has a large octagonal cupola (dome) and a very reach the elegant exterior. The interior is no less magnificent, although it was severely damaged during the Soviet timeAfter 1945, a prison was established in the church and convent buildings. The church interior and the plan of the convent buildings were transformed. After 1990, the sacral buildings are returned to their former ownersAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

The main façade of the Presidential Palace (Prezidentura) in Vilnius at Simonas Daukantas SquareThe presidential coat-of-arms is adorning the entrance to the President's Chancellery on University StreetThe Inner Courtyard of the Presidential Palace - the palace of the President of the Republic of Lithuania since 1997All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2018

Polish King Jan Sobieski, Russian Emperor Alexander I and French Emperor Napoleon I visited the mansion on various occasions. The building was reconstructed in 1839-1841. The present façade is ClassicalA Florentine artist Michelangelo Palloni, was invited from Italy in 1674 to work at Pažaislis monastery and church near Kaunas, and Mykolas Kazimieras Pacas then commissioned him to paint frescoes for of this estate.Unfortunately, none of the original interior, which also included rich stucco work, remainsAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2022

The Galera Gallery in the Užupis Art Incubator also operates there, where exhibitions of various kinds of art are organizedGalera of Užupis is an Alternative art gallery. That is a place similar to the former Christiana district in Copenhagen in DenmarkThe Užupis district and its Art Incubator are separated from the Old Town in Vilnius on three sides by the River Vilnia, and by a high hill on the fourth sideAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020

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

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

Trakų St. finishes where it meets Pylimo St, which runs along the course of the old city wall. There used to be a gate here, which was pulled down together with the wall at the very beginning of the 19th century. In the niche of the Umiastowski estate (Trakų St. 2) there is a Statue of "The City Guard" (1973) In Trakų Street, there is the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption that was founded here by the noble Goštautas family in 1387, the same year as Lithuania became converted to Christianity. However, it is believed that the church with the monastery existed even earlierOne of courtyards of the buildings in Trakų StreetAll 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

The historical building in Tyzenhauzų Str. in VilniusTyzenhauzų Str. building in VilniusTyzenhauzų Str. building in VilniusAll photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2021

The Church of the Assumption is one of the Vilnius' most beautiful Baroque churches and most mature building of the Vilnius' Baroque schoolConstruction on the church began in 1695 and the final work was carried out by Vilnius' Baroque architect Johann Christoph Glaubitz (1700-1767) in 1750-1756The front façade is adorned by a domical rotunda vestibule, and two elegant towers with clocks All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2019

A monument to dr. Jonas Basanavičius in Vilnius in front of the building of the Lithuanian National PhilharmonicDr. Jonas Basanavičius chaired the session of Lithuanian Council that adopted the Act of Independence of Lithuania on 1918-02-16. He was the first to sign the Act of the Proclamation of the Lithuanian IndependenceBalancing between Lithuanian and Polish interests, he refused to participate in the opening of the Polish Stefan Batory University (today Vilnius University)All photos are copyrighted by Vladislav B. Sotirovic© Vladislav B. Sotirovic 2020