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Gedimino prospektas , running west from Cathedral Square, was the main thoroughfare of nineteenth-century Vilnius, and remains the most important commercial street of the city centre. The city's largest department store and main post office, along with various government ministries and public buildings, are all situated here. Now bearing the name of the founder of the city, in the past this broad boulevard of flaking stuccoed buildings has been named after St George, Mickiewicz, Stalin and Lenin, reflecting the succession of foreign powers that have controlled the city. Lukiskiu aikste , around 600m west of Cathedral Square, is the former location of the city's Lenin statue, removed after the failed 1991 coup which precipitated the final break-up of the Soviet Union. The square has long played an infamous role in city history. After the 1863-64 uprising against the Russians, a number of rebels were publicly hanged here, while Gedimino 40, on the southern side of the square, was Lithuania's KGB headquarters . The building also served as Gestapo headquarters during the German occupation and more recently the Soviets incarcerated political prisoners in the basement. It has now been turned into the Genocide Museum (Genocido Auku Muziejus; mid-May to mid-Sept Tues-Sun 10am-6pm; mid-Sept to mid-May Tues-Sun 10am-4pm; 2Lt); the entrance is at Auku 2a. The dank green cells and courtyard where some prisoners were tortured and executed are preserved in their pre-1991 state. The English-language cassette-tape commentary (8Lt) provides detailed background on the prison and its inmates. At the far end of Gedimino prospektas stands Lithuania's graceless modern Parliament Building (Seimas). Thousands gathered here on January 13, 1991, when Soviet troops threatened to occupy it following the killing of a dozen people at the TV Tower (see below). On the side of the parliament facing the river some of the barricades built to defend the building have been preserved, complete with anti-Soviet graffiti; there's also a moving memorial of traditional wooden crosses commemorating those who died at the TV Tower and the seven border guards killed by Soviet special forces in July 1991. The 326-metre TV Tower (Televizijos bokstas; 10am-9pm; 12Lt) itself is around 3km west of the centre in the Karoliniskes district - trolleybus #16 from the train station or #11 from Lukiskiu aikste; alight at the Televizijos bokstas stop on Sausio 13-Osios gatve. At the tower's base, wooden crosses commemorate those killed here in the bloodiest event of the struggle for Baltic independence, and there's a small photograph exhibition inside.
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