The beating heart of the old city, the Gediminas Castle Tower, or Gediminas Tower, is the last remaining bastion of the Castle and the walls that defended Vilnius in medieval times; situated atop the namesake hill near its two main rivers, the Neris and its tributary Vilnia, it enjoyed a strategic position and an excellent view to face enemy advances. It is considered the symbol of the city, so much so that Vilnius was founded, replacing Trakai, as the capital of Lithuania; furthermore, the tower is represented on the old Lithuanian currency, the Litas.
The old Gediminas Castle
The old Castle actually consisted of a complex of three castles and represented the city’s main defensive structure: there were the Upper Castle, the Lower Castle, and the castle called the “Crooked Castle,” the latter burned down around 1400 and was never rebuilt.
The first fortifications in these places were built in wood by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, around the 13th century (1200/1300), and still bear his name; but in reality, the first true defensive brick construction was built in 1400 by Grand Duke Vytautas. The tower that we can still admire and visit is part of the Upper Castle: it has an octagonal base and consists of three red brick floors; inside we can find an archaeological museum where medieval artifacts can be observed, such as armor and remains of the ancient castle, as well as videos of the country’s history of independence. The lower castle, instead, is represented by Vilnius Cathedral and the Royal Palace which stand precisely at the foot of Gediminas Hill.
View from the Gediminas Tower
The entrance to our hill is located near the junction of the two aforementioned rivers and is by no means an easy walk; it is always open to the public (at least the hill) and one can enjoy a beautiful view of the entire city over the Neris River. On one side, it is possible to admire the new city across the main river, with its skyscrapers and modernity; while on the other side, one can see the so-called Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The climb presents obvious difficulties, even for me having been in the Scouts for several years, but a funicular has been ingeniously built to take you directly to the top; the latter can be reached by crossing Cathedral Square, passing in front of the National Museum of Lithuania and circumnavigating the basilica to arrive right in front of the gardens of the Taikomosios Dailes Muzieju (the Museum of Applied Arts and Design in Vilnius) and next to the river, where it starts.
View from the Gediminas Tower
At the top of the tower flies the Lithuanian flag, a symbol of the country’s independence obtained only in 1990, starting specifically from the so-called “human chain” of the Baltic countries, which developed and started right from the Cathedral Square at the foot of the hill and, precisely according to legend, from a tile that reads the word StebuklaS (Miracle).
The Baltic Way (or Baltic Chain)
The Baltic Chain (or Baltic Way) was a peaceful demonstration that took place in 1989 coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in which a secret clause sanctioned the Soviet occupation of the Baltic areas, in which approximately two million people participated among Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians; for a total of 600 km of an actual human chain, hand in hand, side by side, from Vilnius to Tallinn passing through Riga, two million Baltic citizens claimed their autonomy and independence against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The demonstration aimed to bring to the attention of world public opinion a paradoxical economic, political, and civil situation: in fact, among all the ugliness of the Soviet occupation, the future Baltic republics were the only occupied territories, still in the nineties, that were not of Russian ethnicity, creating and developing significant hardships for the three populations.
This chain, for Lithuanian citizens, had the Gediminas Tower as its living central focus, a strong point of reference both politically and socially; the Tower represents a claim to historical and political autonomy that the Lithuanian people could not forget, the mere sight of the Tower and the Grand Duke who gives it its name, Gediminas, brings to memory the history of a people who do not surrender in the face of the oppressor and dictatorship. The Baltic Way is part of the numerous demonstrations involving Baltic citizens in the years from 1987 to 1991, in what is today called the Singing Revolution.
Article by Simone Serri