VILNIUS - In Your Pocket

66 what to see
Sightseeing tours
Astrida G-3, J. Tumo-Vaižganto 5, tel. (+370)
5 212 27 90, www.astrida.lt. Miscellaneous city
tours and tours further afield in a range of languages
including such rarities as Chinese, Japanese and
Portuguese. QOpen 09:00 - 18:00, Fri 09:00 - 17:00.
Closed Sat, Sun. A
Baltic Travel Service Lufthansa City Center
C-4, Subačiaus 2, tel. 1593, www.bts.lt. Guided
tours around the city, region and country. Must be booked
in advance. QOpen 08:00 - 18:00, Sat 10:00 - 15:00.
Closed Sun. JA
Lithuanian Holidays H-1, Šeimyniškių 1a, tel.
(+370) 5 263 60 64, www.lithuanianholidays.lt.
Jewish and other Vilnius tours. QOpen 09:00 - 17:00.
Closed Sat, Sun.
Oreivystės Centras (Ballooning Centre) H-3,
Upės 5, tel. (+370) 652 005 10, www.ballooning.lt.
As well as organising a wealth of balloon-related activities
nationwide, these people also offer balloon trips over
Vilnius and locations around the country. The trips are
well priced and last on average about one hour.
Vilnius City Tour C-5, Aušros Vartų 7, tel. (+370)
699 540 64, www.vilniuscitytour.com. Tours of the
historic centre in a number of languages. Also audio
guides available. QOpen 09:30 - 17:00, Sat, Sun 09:30
- 15:00. JA
Bernardine Cemetery (Bernardinų Kapinės) J-4,
Žvirgždyno 3. Founded in 1810 by Bernardine monks, the
cemetery is perhaps the most attractive and romantic
cemetery in Vilnius. Located over a little less than four
hectares on a rolling hill running down to the Vilnia river,
the cemetery fell into disrepair soon after WWII before
being finally shut in 1970. Independence has seen it
flourish with the assistance of the Lithuanian and Polish
governments, although much work remains to be done.
Of particular interest are the columbaria, once used for
holding urns full of ashes and now slowly crumbling away.
Among the eminent university professors, scientists and
painters buried here find a few surprises including Geleda
Dzerzhinskaja (1849-1896), whose claim to fame was giving
birth to the founder of the forerunner of the KGB, Felix
Dzerzhinsky (Feliksas Dzeržinskis).
Lithuanian Karaite & Tatar Cemetery (Karaimų ir
Totorių Kapinės) Žirnių. Following the destruction in the
mid-1960s of the original cemetery in Lukiškės, the former
traditional home of the city’s Lithuanian Karaite and Tatar
communities, a new cemetery was opened in a remote area
in the southern part of Vilnius close to the airport. Among
the graves, which are marked in an extraordinary mixture
of Hebrew (Lithuanian Karaite) and Arabic (Tatar), is that of
the Lithuanian Karaite scientist, historian and head of the
Lithuanian and Polish Karaite communities Chadži Seraja
Chan Šapšalas (Pol. Hadżi Seraja Chan Szapszał, 1873-
1961). The cemetery is still in use, but is generally closed
to visitors (although the fence surrounding it is hardly very
high). According to tradition, women are forbidden from visiting.
Find it on the stretch of Žirnių to the east of the road to
the airport, before the ski slopes on the north side.
Rasos Cemetery (Rasų Kapinės) I/J-5, Rasų/
Sukilėlių. Founded in 1801 and the final resting place of
many of the country’s social elite, this extraordinary cemetery
stretched over a large area divided by a main road is
still in use today, providing an extraordinary snapshot of the
cultural history of the city. Hidden away here find the artist and
composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), the
author and publicist Jonas Basanavičius (1851-1927), whose
grave is inscribed with a peculiar, 19th-century version of
Lithuanian that predates its written standardisation, and the
heart of Marshall Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935), the local-born
Polish general who played a key role in re-establishing Polish
independence in 1918 as well as the country’s subsequent
annexation of Vilnius in 1920. Buried with his mother under
a black granite slab and surrounded by the graves of Polish
soldiers, the rest of him lies in Poland’s most sacred burial
place under Kraków’s Wawel Cathedral.
Vingio Parkas Soldiers Cemetery (VIlniaus
Vingio Parko Karių Kapinės) F-4, M. K. Čiurlionio.
A cemetery of one sort or another has been known to exist
here since victims of the plague were buried on the site in
1710. During the German occupation of Vilnius during WWI
the cemetery was used for soldiers from the German, Turkish,
Polish and Russian armies. In 1948 at the height of the
destruction of the final resting places of many of the former
inhabitants of the city, the Soviet authorities ripped up the
gravestones and the site lay abandoned until 1980 when
it was unceremoniously turned into a children’s playground
and public toilet. Thanks to the efforts of the Germans,
the 6.5 hectare site was renovated in 2001, with various
markers and a large monument placed where specific
burial sites were known to exist. At the eastern entrance
of Vingio Parkas, the cemetery offers a poignant glimpse
inside the former rich ethnic tapestry that once made up
the population of the city.
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