VILNIUS - In Your Pocket

Sts. Peter & Pauls’ Church (Šv. Apaštalų Petro ir
Povilo Bažnyčia) J-3, Antakalnio 1, tel. (+370) 5 234
02 29. Believed to have been built on the site of a site of
worship to Milda, the pagan goddess of love, this breathtaking
Late Baroque masterpiece was commissioned to celebrate
victory over the Russians in 1668 by Michael Casimir Pac,
the Grand Hetman of the Lithuanian armies, who never lived
to see its completion. Financed by two of Pac’s cousins and
completed under several master craftsmen including the
Polish Jan Zaor and Italian Gianbattista Frediani, the rather
plain façade betrays an interior by Giovanni Pietro Perti and
Giovanni Maria Galli that’s quite simply out of this world. Containing
over 2,000 astonishing stucco mouldings representing
miscellaneous religious and mythological scenes, of equal
magnificence are the 20th-century altar containing a wooden
figure of Christ, Antakalnio Jėzus (Jesus of Antakalnis) which
features real human hair brought from Rome in 1700 and the
Latvian chandelier made of brass and glass beads and dating
from 1905. Q Mass 07:00, 07:30, 17:00 (Polish), 18:00, Sun
07:30, 08:30 (Polish), 10:00, 11:30, 13:00 (Polish), 18:00.
St. Theresa’s Church (Šv. Teresės Bažnyčia) C-5,
Aušros Vartų 14, tel. (+370) 5 212 35 13. Probably Vilnius’
best surviving example of Early Baroque religious architecture,
work on the first incarnation of St. Theresa’s was completed
in around 1650. Built at the behest and expense of the then
Deputy Chancellor Steponas Pacas (Pol. Stefan Pac), the
straightforward idea behind its construction was to create
the most beautiful church in the city, a fact that can clearly
be seen by its elaborate façade, predominantly the work of
the Swiss-born Constantino Tencalla (1610-1647) who also
worked on St. George’s Chapel inside the city’s Cathedral.
The spectacular and predominantly rococo interior, much of
it added in the middle of the 18th century, is a riot of golds
and pinks. J
Places of interest
Centre of Europe (Europos Centras) Lithuania has
the proud and noble distinction along with at least six other
places of being smack in the middle of Europe. The Lithuanian
claim stems from a 1989 ruling by Jean-George Affholder of
France’s Institut Géographique National who announced that
the site lies at Bernotai, close to the village of Purnuškės
some 26km north of Vilnius. The exact point, which can be
reached by driving out of the city on the A14 in the direction
of Molėtai and looking for the signs, has been commemorated
with the construction of an expensive monument, a fact that
may go a long way to explaining why a recent recalculation
placing the centre of Europe six kilometres closer to Vilnius
is being more or less ignored by the cash-strapped nation.
Ultimately one should remember that Europe is a concept
and not actually a continent at all, making the whole affair
slightly ridiculous in the first place.
Dawn Gate (Aušros Vartai) C-5, Aušros Vartų 12, tel.
(+370) 5 212 35 13. Completed in 1522, the Dawn Gate (or
Sharp Gate (Ostra Brama) as it’s known to the Poles) is the
only remaining gate from the city’s original defensive walls.
As was common at the time, an image of the Virgin Mary
was placed above all gates to protect the city, and the story
of the Dawn Gate starts from this simple historic fact. The
current image, known as The Blessed Virgin Mary Mother
of Mercy, was painted on eight pieces of oak in around 1630
by an unknown artist, was embellished with gold and silver
about 40 years after that, was housed inside a purpose-built
chapel above the gate in 1706 and is believed to have magic
healing powers. Interestingly, the Dawn Gate is revered by
both the Catholic and Orthodox faiths and is such an important
part of the city’s cultural heritage that it remained open
vilnius.inyourpocket.com
what to see
Keturiasdešimt Totorių
In 1397, Vytautas
the Great,
known as Vitaut
(Вітаўт) to the
Belarusians and
Witold to th e
Poles, famously
settled a group
of former Tatar
p r i s o n e r s o f
war and their
families in the
Grand Duchy of
Lithuania in the
then culturally
and ethnically
complex region
around Vilnius,
Richard Schofield
or Vilna as it
was called at the
time. These Turkic newcomers, who became known as
the Lipka Tatars (Lipka probably from the Crimean Tatar
word for Lithuania), sprang up in several settlements in
the area including today’s tiny village of Keturiasdešimt
Totorių (Forty Tatars), one of the oldest Lipka Tatar
settlements in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and
just 20km south of Vilnius. The history and culture of the
Lipka Tatars is a beguiling mix of influences embodying
the religions of shamanism, Islam and Christianity and a
language that evolved into a form of spoken Belarusian
that was written in the Arabic script, a unique language
that lasted well into the 1930s. Predominantly Islamic,
the Lipka Tatars had an unusually liberal attitude towards
women, with co-education being the norm, although this
didn’t stop polygamy, a practice that allegedly bought
about the name Keturiasdešimt Totorių with the no doubt
apocryphal story of a local Lipka Tatar man who had four
wives that each bore him 10 sons. Keturiasdešimt Totorių
is a typical local anomaly, being both infamous although
seldom visited, the latter perhaps for good reason as
there’s little to see beyond the village’s wooden mosque,
first mentioned in written sources in 1558 and rebuilt in
1815 after Napoleon’s Grande Armée raised it to the
ground during the ill-fated invasion of Russia two centuries
ago. Despite the lack of local attractions, a short
visit to Keturiasdešimt Totorių is highly recommended,
not least for anyone with even a passing interest in the
strange and illustrious history of the region. Now looking
entirely out of place, the mosque is the Islamic version
of the local Catholic wooden village church, simple in
design and unfortunately seldom open to the public. The
main attraction however is the surrounding cemetery
complete with gravestones dating back hundreds of
years and many carved with a star and the Moon at the
top with Arabic inscriptions underneath. Getting to the
village can be a bit of an adventure for those without
access to a car or the strength to cycle there. The N°42
bus service runs fairly regularly from the stop in the
northwestern corner of the large square outside the
train and bus stations, but only goes as far as the small
town of Pagiriai, two kilometres short of the required
destination. Alternatively, a local service runs from the
bus station all the way to Keturiasdešimt Totorių several
times a day, continuing the journey to Skarbutenai before
turning round and coming back again. This gives visitors
about 45 minutes to see the mosque.
August - November 2012
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