The City
At the centre of Vilnius, poised between the medieval and nineteenth-century parts of the city is Cathedral Square (Katedros aikste). To the south of here along Pilies gatve and Didzioji gatve is the Old Town , containing perhaps the most impressive concentration of Baroque architecture in northern Europe. West of the square in the New Town is Gedimino prospektas , a nineteenth-century boulevard that's the focal point of the city's commercial and administrative life. Wedged between the Old Town and the Gedimino prospektas areas, the traditionally Jewish areas of Vilnius were shorn of their populations in the 1941-1945 period, but retain a sprinkling of worthwhile sights.
VilniusJankauskas says "Inhabited for centuries, Vilnius today is a multinational city with significant Polish and Russian minorities, about 20% each of them. It used to have a strong Jewish minority before World War II, but most of the Jews from Vilnius got exterminated. After the war the Soviet government expelled most of the remaining Polish population of the city and replaced them with Lithuanian and Russian citizens."
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