Vilnius

Vilnius (, see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 570,806.

Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius.

The population of Vilnius functional urban area, that stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 697,691 (as of 2017), while according to statistics of Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there are 723,016 permanent inhabitants (as of June 2019) in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined.

It surrounds the capital city of Vilnius on 3 sides, while the rest borders the Trakai District Municipality.

In 2009, Vilnius was the European Capital of Culture, together with the Austrian city of Linz.

In 2009 Linz, together with the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture.

According to legend, Grand Duke Gediminas (c.

Also seen as one of the most significant individuals in early Lithuanian history, he was responsible for both building Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and establishing a dynasty that later came to rule other European countries such as Poland, Hungary and Bohemia.

He fell soundly asleep and dreamed of a huge Iron Wolf standing on top a hill and howling as strong and loud as a hundred wolves.

The Iron Wolf (Geležinis Vilkas) is a mythical character from a medieval legend of the founding of Vilnius, the capital city of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania and modern Republic of Lithuania.

The names Wilno, Wilna and Vilna have also been used in older English, German, French and Italian language publications when the city was one of the capitals of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and later an important city in the Second Polish Republic.

The cultural hubs of interwar Poland – Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wilno and Lwów – became major European cities and the sites of internationally acclaimed universities and other institutions of higher education.

During the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, Vytautas besieged and razed the city in an attempt to wrest control from Jogaila.

When his first attempt to take the capital city of Vilnius failed, Vytautas forged an alliance with the Teutonic Knights, their common enemy – just as both cousins had done during the Lithuanian Civil War between 1381 and 1384.

Vilnius (, see also other names) is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 570,806.

1275–1341) was hunting in the sacred forest near the Valley of Šventaragis, near where Vilnia River flows into the Neris River.

Šventaragis' Valley is a valley at the confluence of Neris and Vilnia Rivers in Vilnius, Lithuania.

On 4–5 December 1905, the Great Seimas of Vilnius was held in the current Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society building with over 2000 participants.

The Great Seimas of Vilnius (Didysis Vilniaus Seimas, also known as the Great Assembly of Vilnius, the Grand Diet of Vilnius, or the Great Diet of Vilnius) was a major assembly held on December 4 and 5, 1905 (November 21–22, 1905 O.S.) in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, largely inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905.

It is considered an important step towards the Act of Independence of Lithuania, adopted on 16 February 1918 by the Council of Lithuania, as the Seimas laid the groundwork for the establishment of an independent Lithuanian state.

The Act of Reinstating Independence of Lithuania (Lietuvos Valstybės atkūrimo aktas) or Act of 16 February was signed by the Council of Lithuania on 16 February 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital.

During Russian rule, the city walls were destroyed, and by 1805 only the Gate of Dawn remained.

The Gate of Dawn (Aušros vartai), or Sharp Gate (Ostra Brama, Вострая Брама, Острая брама) is a city gate in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and one of its most important religious, historical and cultural monuments.

Kaunas then became the temporary capital of Lithuania.

Kaunas (also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and the historical centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life.

Vilnius changed hands again during the Polish–Soviet War and the Lithuanian Wars of Independence: it was taken by the Polish Army, only to fall to Soviet forces again.

The Polish army launched an offensive on April 16, 1919, to take Vilnius (Wilno) from the Red Army.

On 28 October 1939, the Red Army withdrew from the city to its suburbs (to Naujoji Vilnia) and Vilnius was given over to Lithuania.

Naujoji Vilnia (Nowa Wilejka) is a neighborhood in eastern Vilnius, Lithuania situated along the banks of the Vilnia River.

On 4–5 December 1905, the Great Seimas of Vilnius was held in the current Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society building with over 2000 participants.

Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society (Lietuvos nacionalinė filharmonija) is a concert agency headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The city and its surroundings were designated as a separate state, called the Republic of Central Lithuania.

Centered on the historical capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilna (Vilnius, Wilno), for eighteen months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area.

These letters contain the first unambiguous reference to Vilnius as the capital; Old Trakai Castle had been the earlier seat of the court of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

However, the newly-reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbors, with a truncated state (principal cities being Kraków, Warsaw and Vilnius) remaining only nominally independent.

The secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had partitioned Lithuania and Poland into German and Soviet spheres of interest.

The secret protocol also recognised the interest of Lithuania in the Vilno region; in addition, Germany declared complete disinterest in Bessarabia.

By 1931, the city had 195,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in Poland with varied industries, such as Elektrit, a factory that produced radio receivers.

Elektrit Radiotechnical Society (Towarzystwo Radiotechniczne „ELEKTRIT”) was the largest privately owned company in Wilno, Second Republic of Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania) (1925–39).

The Soviets and Lithuania concluded a mutual assistance treaty on 10 October 1939, with which the Lithuanian government accepted the presence of Soviet military bases in various parts of the country.

According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius Region, including Lithuania's historical capital, Vilnius, and in exchange would allow five Soviet military bases with 20,000 troops to be established across Lithuania.

Although, after the third partition of April 1795, Vilnius was annexed by the Russian Empire and became the capital of the Vilna Governorate.

The seat was in Vilnius (Vilna in Russian), where the Governors General resided.

A variety of languages were spoken: Polish, German, Yiddish, Ruthenian, Lithuanian, Russian, Old Church Slavonic, Latin, Hebrew, and Turkic languages; the city was compared to Babylon.

Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuania's Vilnius County (26% of the population, according to the 2001 census results, with Vilnius having been part of Poland from 1922 until 1939) and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania.

On 22 June 1941, the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, while at the same time Lithuanians began the anti-Soviet June Uprising, organized by the Lithuanian Activist Front.

Two large Lithuanian cities, Kaunas and Vilnius, fell into the hands of the rebels before the arrival of the Wehrmacht.

Because of shortage of housing for a growing population of the city, large scale Microdistricts (so-called sleeping districts) were built in the elderates of Antakalnis, Žirmūnai, Lazdynai, Karoliniškės, Viršuliškės, Baltupiai, Justiniškės, Pašilaičiai, Fabijoniškės and on a smaller scale in other parts of Vilnius.

Žirmūnai ( is the most populous administrative division (elderate) in Vilnius.