VILNLUS, LITHUANIA

Unlike the other two BS, Lithuania has a previous history of statehood. Indeed, it is claimed that in the late C14th the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe, extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea!
Actually, things were bit more complex, as Lithuania was closely linked to Poland for several centuries, and together they fought off both the Golden Horde and the Teutonic knights (with the help of Henry Bolingbroke). The King of Poland was usually also Grand Duke of Lithuania - both elective appointments; or sometimes brothers, and when one died the other ‘inherited’ the title. As from 1569 they formed a ‘commonwealth’ while remaining nominally independent. Lithuanian power waned and it was incorporated into the Russian empire in the C18th, when Vilnius was the 3rd largest city in the empire! It was also Polish between WWI and WWII when both states finally recovered their indepndenc (till 1939), and the Lithuanians had a hard time getting their capital back.

Vilnius was known as the “Jerusalem of the north” (among others by Napoleon, who stopped here twice) for its huge Jewish population (64,000 in the C19th). The whole of Lithuania contained 260,000 Jews in 1939, 95% of whom were ‘liquidated’ by the Nazis. We walked through the Small Ghetto  — it is now a tourist area, but I found it a bit creepy and we did not stop for dinner there.

Another difference from its neighbours is that Lithuania is catholic, although their baroque churches are fairly sober - especialy that of St Casimir, a mediaeval member of the ducal family who embraced the most ascetic version of cathlicism. I thought this was merely the aftermath of communism until we entered the Polish St Dominic, which was far more extravagant.