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The Old Town (Senamiestis), just south of Cathedral Square, is a network of narrow, often cobbled streets that forms the Baroque heart of Vilnius, with the theoretically pedestrianized Pilies gatve (Castle Street) cutting into it from the southeastern corner of the square. To the right of this street is Vilnius University (Vilniaus Universitetas), a jumble of buildings constructed between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries around nine linked courtyards that extend west as far as Universiteto gatve. The university was founded by the Jesuits in 1579 at the behest of the Polish king, Stefan Bathory, and by the time Lithuania was annexed by tsarist Russia in 1795, it ranked as the oldest in the Russian Empire, though this didn't deter the Russians from closing it down in 1832. Reopened during the first independence, the university survived the Soviet era and now has fourteen thousand students. Within its precincts you'll find the ornate St John's Church (Sv Jono baznycia), standing out from the crowd even in this city of beautiful churches - access from Sv Jono gatve. Founded during the fourteenth century, St John's was taken over by the Jesuits in 1561 and given to the university in 1737. Reconstruction after a fire in the same year has left it with its present Baroque facade, and a no-holds-barred Baroque altar inside. The side-chapel dedicated to St Anne is comparatively restrained, with an unusual wooden altar showing Christ on the Cross with the disciples represented as bunches of grapes. Some recently uncovered ceiling frescoes depict the biblical story of Esther. St John's bell tower , separate from the main building, gives excellent views of the city. The Presidential Palace (Prezidentura), just west of the university on Daukanto aikste , was originally built during the sixteenth century as a merchant's residence and remodelled into its present Neoclassical form at the end of the eighteenth century, going on to serve as the residence of the Russian governor-general during the Tsarist period. Napoleon Bonaparte stayed here briefly during his ill-fated campaign against Russia in 1812: the emperor's sojourn excited hopes that a French victory might bring a revival of Lithuanian independence, but in the event resulted in nothing more than a bout of plundering as his defeated army straggled westwards. The emperor is said to have been so impressed by St Anne's Church (Sv Onos baznycia; Tues-Sat 10am-3pm & 5.30-9pm, Sun 8am-1pm & 5-7pm) on Maironio gatve, to the east of Pilies gatve, that he wanted to take it back to Paris on the palm of his hand. Studded with skeletal, finger-like towers, and its facade overlaid with intricate brick traceries and fluting, this late-sixteenth-century structure is the finest Gothic building in Vilnius. Rising behind St Anne's is the Gothic facade of the much larger Bernardine Church (Bernardinu vienuolyno baznicia) from 1520. Its once fine Baroque interior suffered during its Sovietuera incarnation as home to the Vilnius Art Academy, and the building is now undergoing a much-needed overhaul. Just south of St Anne's and the Benedictine church is a statue commemorating the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), author of Pan Tadeusz , the Polish national epic. Nearby is the A. Mickievicius Memorial Apartment at Bernardinu 11 (A. Mickievicius Memorialinis butas; Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 10am-2pm; free), a small museum whose rather paltry exhibits include a couple of chairs and a desk owned by Mickiewicz and a number of Polish and Lithuanian first editions of his works. Bernardinu gatve itself is one of the Old Town's more appealing back streets, a narrow lane lined by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses that runs back to Pilies. Heading south Pilies becomes Main Street (Didzioji gatve). The restored Baroque palace at no. 4 is the Vilnius Picture Gallery , which houses the Lithuanian Art Museum (Tues-Sat noon-6pm, Sun noon-5pm; 4Lt; free on Wed in winter), a marvellous collection of sixteenth- to nineteenth-century paintings and sculptures, gathered from around the country. The colonnaded Neoclassical building standing firmly at the end of Town Hall Square (Rotuses aikste) has recently been restored to its original function as the town hall. The modern building behind it and to the right houses the Contemporary Art Centre (Siuolaikinio Meno Centras; Tues-Sun 11am-7pm; 4Lt; free on Wed in winter), which hosts changing exhibitions of works by modern artists from Lithuania and elsewhere. Just east of the square, St Casimir's Church (Sv Kazimiero baznycia; Mon-Fri 4-6.30pm, Sun 8am-2pm), dating from 1604 and the oldest Baroque church in the city, remains a striking building - its central cupola topped by an elaborate crown and cross symbolizing the royal ancestry of St Casimir, the son of King Casimir IV of Poland. The interior is, however, disappointingly ugly with a startlingly tacky-looking main altar, a legacy of a chequered history that saw the building remodelled as an Orthodox church in tsarist times and converted into a Museum of Atheism and the History of Religion under the Soviets. South of here, Didzioji becomes Ausros Vartu gatve , a short distance along which a gateway on the left-hand side leads to the seventeenth-century Church of the Holy Spirit (Sv Dvasios Cerkve), Lithuania's main Orthodox church, a Baroque structure built on a low hill in the grounds of a monastery. The interior is surprisingly airy and in front of the large iconostasis stands a glass case in which the bodies of three fourteenth-century martyrs are displayed, their faces swathed in cloth. A little further along Ausros Vartu gatve the seventeenth-century St Theresa's Church (Sv Tereses Baznicia) rises to the left of the street, another soaring testimony to the city's dominating architectural style. The end of the street is marked by the Gates of Dawn (Ausros Vartai), the sole survivor of nine city gates that once studded the walls of Vilnius. A Chapel above the gate houses the city's most celebrated religious monument, the White Madonna , an image of the Virgin Mary said to have miraculous powers and revered by Polish Catholics. Only the Madonna's hands and face are visible, the rest of the likeness being overlaid by a gilt covering. Entrance to the chapel is via a small door in the walls of St Theresa's from where steps lead up to the room containing the White Madonna, which is usually surrounded by rapt worshippers. During the day the chapel windows are often left open and the Madonna is visible from the street below. East of Ausros Vartu gatve on Boksto 20/18 is the Artillery Bastion (Artilerijos Basteja), a seventeenth-century bastion that was once part of the city's outer fortification ring and which now houses a museum (Wed-Sun 10am-5pm; 4Lt, free on Wed in winter) of weapons and armour. The museum is more interesting for its setting than its contents: exhibits are housed in a long brick passageway leading to the outer part of the bastion, where cannons similar to those used to defend the city have been placed in the embrasures. Labels are in Lithuanian and Russian, with some English.
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