September 11, 2006
In the afternoon, we took a city tour starting at the The Gate of Dawn. The Gate of Dawn was built-in 1522. Of the original nine gates, the Gate of Dawn is the only remaining. In 1671, the chapel was built within the gate with a miraculous icon of a dark faced Vilnius Madonna, “The Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy”. Many religious people make pilgrimages to the including Pope John Paul II who blessed it in 1993.
After viewing the Gate of Dawn, we headed to Old Town to see various things. There is a lot of renovation going on in Vilnius. In 2009, Vilnius will be made the Capital of European History as well as celebrate it’s millennium. In preparation for it, there are a lot of monuments being renovate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for good pictures.
St. Anne’s Church is considered a materpiece of Late Lithuanian Gothic architecture. The church dates back to 1394 with it being reconstructed in 1582.
The Cathedral of Vilnius is one that is under renovation so I didn’t get any good photos of it from the outside. On the inside it was ornate and beautiful.
The curch blew is the Rusian Orthodox Church of St. Paraskevia. It was visited by Tsar Peter I. Legend has it that the Tsar batized the Russian poet Aleksander Pushkin’s grandfather, the African Hannibal.
Church of St. Parasceve Othdox Church
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