Vilnius is capital of the Baltic state of Lithuania, a city of Baroque mixed with Gothic, Renaissance and Classicism, a melting pot of culture.

The city’s main avenue, Gediminas Prospekt, is a wide and straight route that contains a number of magnificent Neo-Classical buildings and is the main axis of the city centre that is flanked by hotels, department stores and restaurants and also connects the city’s four main squares.

Construction of the Saint Stanislau Basilica commenced in 1783 in Classical style, with Doric columns and the sculptures of saints on the portikus. It contains a much visited and well protected copy of the Turin Shroud.

Pilies Street is the oldest and most beautiful street in the Old Town and was formerly the road from the castle towards Poland and Russia. The narrow street is lined with beautiful old buildings and once aristocrats and rich city dwellers built their homes there and kings, papal legates and foreign envoys passed by on their journey to the city’s castle.

The Television Tower is the main landmark of a new town built in 1980. Beneath the tower are reminders of the Bloody Sunday of 1991 when Soviet special forces stormed it at gunpoint. It is more than three hundred metres high and features a revolving restaurant.

From the outside, the Saint Peter And Paul Church looks rather modest. In 1668 it was built on the site of a pagan temple of Milde, Goddess Of Love. Its interior Baroque overwhelms with its exceptional beauty and more than two thousand stone figures look down from its arches and columns.

Within Vilnius tolerance is very much alive and the city has become a European Capital of Culture, a successful blend of architecture, human spirit and nature!