The Portals of Vilnius

The Dominican monks have been here since the beginning of the 16th century, but their monastery and church have been destroyed by many fires, and the present Church of the Holy Spirit has changed little since it was built in the second half of the 18th century. The church is unusually placed along the edge of the street, so that the portal (Latin for ‘ornate entrance’ ‘gateway’) opens into the side wall of the building. The Baroque entrance is decorated with rocailles (exuberant ‘flames’ or ‘shell’ patterns typical of the period, with the royal coat of arms of the Vasa family and the emblem of the Brothers of the Preachers’ Monastery above the door. If it looks delightfully unusual, it is due to a misunderstanding during the restoration. The emblem depicts a dog biting a torch against the background of the globe.
Just turn into Šv. Ignoto Street and you will find a low wooden door in the wall of the church leading to the crypts. Iron fittings are a decorative feature of the hinges, which secure the door to the frame and allow it to swing open; when developed into complex hardware, the hinges can also strengthen the door, while the various patterns give it a symbolic protective meaning. Legends have circulated that the cellars were used to bury victims of the plague or Napoleon’s soldiers who died in 1812. Indeed, the church’s vaults are spacious, with many rooms and crypts. Between six hundred and several thousand monks, noblemen, and townsfolk are thought to have been buried in the cellars during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The junction overlooks a square. Until 1944, a house belonging to the famous Vilnius classicist architect Laurynas Gucevičius stood on the empty spot where cars are now parked. A circular marker in the pavement shows the site of a rotunda-shaped tower similar to the one across the street. These two towers symbolically marked the entrance to the densely built-up and populated Jewish quarter. The years of occupation destroyed the Jewish legacy in Vilnius, but the narrow, curved, arched streets are a reminder of the active community life, trade, and crafts, with goldsmiths and glassblowers based here. The names of the streets are also derived from the inhabitants and their trades. Nowadays, the quarter has a new name – the Glass Quarter. The sculptural door handles of the ‘Stiklių’ Hotel and ‘Glassblowers’ are based on this theme.

In 1997, the former Governor General’s Palace was reconstructed and adapted for the Presidential Palace, and the adjacent buildings at Universiteto g. 6 and 8 were adapted for the Presidential Office and Chancellery (the reconstruction was designed by architect Saulius Šimelionis). According to the architectural studies carried out, it was decided to restore the Renaissance façade of the Palace. A monumental Renaissance portal was installed in place of the gate arch. The non-transparent yet glass door with metal hardware was designed according to the authentic drawing of the wooden embossed door (embossed doors are made by inserting panels into the frame, thus creating a decorative and robust structure).
On the other side of the street, the gothic red-brick façade of the first building belonging to the Jesuit College was unveiled. The white colour of the restoration marks the location of the former main entrance.

This very special door is made of bronze and weights several hundred kilograms! The door was made to mark the 450th anniversary of the first Lithuanian book, written by Martynas Mažvydas. On the door you can see images of some of the most important events in Lithuanian culture as well as people who helped preserve the Lithuanian language and Vilnius University.

Pay attention: What was the title of the first Lithuanian book?

Just imagine: The shape of the door handle is unnusual. What do they represent?

Vilnius was a bustling hotbed of trade in the 19th century. The facades of buildings were changing rapidly. Merchants set up shop on the ground floors and sometimes on the second floors, shop display windows were cut through the walls, and the facades were covered with advertising signs. The shop windows on the left-hand side of Pilies g. 32 were created in 1911 (the project was designed by Anton Filipovič-Dubovik). The wall is covered with glazed tiles. These changes can still be seen on many of the facades today, with modern shopfronts on the ground floors and glass doors inviting visitors in. 

The architecture of the courtyard is ancient. It is reminiscent of a time when staircases were not built inside the building, but against the outer walls, and access to the building was through roofed galleries. All the doors were inside the property. Look at the cellar door; there are more hinges than usual, and it can fold out in the middle like a book when open.

Legend has it that St. Anne’s Church was built by two stonemasons – an experienced one and his young son-in-law. The old master had to leave after constructing the foundations and walls, but returned to find the upper part of the church finished in a beautiful, light, open-work style that was different from his heavy and unsightly masonry. The master, blinded by jealousy, pushed the young man off the scaffolding. From the 16th century onwards, more craftsmen added their own touch to the church. After some fires, the roof was replaced, while the cracks in the walls were repaired in the 19th century. Hundreds of people contributed to the restoration work with their own money and labour. The project was designed by the famous Warsaw architect Józef Pius Dziekoński. Everything from the foundations to the roof was reinforced, and metal frames were built into the walls. The door knockers are decorated with the heads of creatures, while the iron doors are decorated with the monogram SA (Santa Anna). On the left-hand edge, you will also find an inscription in Polish: Wykul S. Wozniak w pracowni A. Mencel w Warszawe 1908 r., which tells us that this door was made by the master craftsman S. Wozniak in the workshop of A. Mencel in Warsaw in 1908. Inside the church, there is also a plaque to Dominika Pileckaitė-Puchalska, whose donation towards the renovation of the church enabled the windows and doors to be installed.

On Bernardinų Street, notice the wooden gates and doors with a traditional diamond and herringbone motif. The inner side is made of vertical planks, while the outer side is decorative, made of profiled planks, forming various compositions. Metal suns sometimes ‘bloom’ in the knots of the resulting network. As with churches and other monumental doors that are difficult to open, you will often see smaller doors built into the gates, which are suitable for everyday use. If you enter the courtyard of the A. Mickiewicz Museum through one of these doors, you can see the authentic gate screens on the inside of the gate. The corners of the gate arches are equipped with ‘gateguards’ – stone pillars that protect the walls from the wheels of carriages entering the courtyard.
As you walk further along the street, you will notice that there are fewer windows and doors, and the houses are separated from the outside by blind walls. In the second half of the 19th century, many of the buildings on Bernardinų Street were reconstructed, with outbuildings in the courtyards. However, unlike Pilies Street, the street facades were not lined with shop windows.
The buildings on Pilies Street are connected by a tiled archway. Not only does it have a structural function to withstand the pressure of the walls, but the arches could also be used to hang gates and lock the street at night.

There is no door at eye level between the Cathedral and the Palace of the Grand Dukes, but if you look closely you will find the symbolically marked location of the gallery connecting the Palace with the Chapel of St. Casimir – the private entrance of the sovereigns to the Cathedral. It is a very modest entrance for the rulers, while the rest of the faithful enter the church through what are probably the largest doors in Vilnius. The magnificent façade of Vilnius Cathedral is also supported by six of the tallest pillars in Lithuania.
The plan and facades by architect Laurynas Gucevičius are Classical, while the sculptures in the niches are Baroque in character, with spirituality, inner dynamism and individual expression. The double wooden doors, modestly decorated, were painted in dark-brown-coloured imitation oak during the Soviet period. This colour was fiercely criticised by the historian Vladas Drėma. He argued that if Gucevičius had needed an oak door, it would probably have been made of real oak, not solid pine, and that the doors’ reliefs also look most decorative on a light-coloured surface. After the restoration, the doors were returned to their original light grey colour. 
Interestingly, 700 years ago, church doors were the place for advertisements. Duke Gediminas himself ordered that copies of his letter inviting craftsmen to come to Vilnius should be nailed to the doors of churches.

On the corner of the present-day Arsenalo and Žygimantų Streets, one of the most beautiful palaces of the time, the residence of Klementyna Tyszkiewicz, was built in 1888. The palace was designed by architect Kiprijonas Maculevičius. The plan of the palace is unparalleled in Vilnius, with large spaces and Italian Renaissance forms. The ceilings are 8 m high, the wings are aligned parallel to the street. Family legend has it that the beautiful Klementyna Potocka was in love with the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf who was determined to give up his throne for her. To avoid jeopardising the future of the empire, Klementyna married Count Jan Tyszkiewicz. Accustomed to living in luxury and travelling to the biggest cities in Europe, the Countess built her palace in Vilnius to maintain living conditions no worse than those she was used to in Paris. It was the opulent venue for lavish balls and receptions. The Neo-Renaissance palace is distinguished by a raised carriage drive under a huge balcony supported by columns. Upon entering through the tall double doors, you will be welcomed by a wide ceremonial staircase.

Between the 15-18th centuries, the estates from Totorių Street to the Neris belonged to the Radziwiłł family. At the beginning of the 19th century, the city began to expand, and wealthy citizens began to buy plots of land in this area. Ana Zajaček and Jekaterina Tyszkiewicz bought the plot at Žygimantų g. 2, and in 1892, built residential premises and outbuildings to designs by Aleksander Bykovski. In 1939-2013, the Vilnius Red Cross Hospital operated on the site. This building was not used by the hospital and, after reconstruction in 2004, it was used by the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court.
The decoration of the entire building is elaborate; the portal is decorated with pillars and caryatids – the supports of a female figure derived from ancient architecture. The carved double doors are made of oak, and they echo the façade decoration of strips of acanthus leaves, circles, and columns. Note that the entrance is below the level of the current pavement, which is testament to how much the surface layer of the street has increased over the last century.

In 1909, the owner of Plungė Manor, Duchess Maria Skórzewska Ogińska, bought the palace from the impoverished Count Antoni Tyszkiewicz. The palace had already changed hands many times and been rebuilt by at least six architects. Each new owner made improvements according to his own wishes. In 1888, the rebuilding of the palace came to an end, and only the finer decorative details continued to be embellished. The monogram OM – the initials of Maria Ogińska, the last Countess to own the palace before the Second World War – is clearly legible in the wrought-iron decoration of the windows and doors. The entrance is accentuated by a metal canopy with lanterns and creeper motifs on the light neo-baroque façade. The heavy door decorated with initials and flowers is somewhat reluctant to be opened; once sufficient effort has been exerted, however, one of the most impressive staircases in the neo-Baroque style is revealed.

The adjacent buildings and mature trees provide perfect cover to hide the Church of St. George the Martyr and the Carmelite Monastery of the Old Order from the eyes of hurrying passers-by. The Baroque church was rebuilt in the mid-18th century at the expense of Jerzy Radziwiłł, Voivode of Nowogródek (Naugardukas). Later, the monastery housed a seminary, which operated until 1945. When all the churches were closed during the Soviet era, the monastery was used as a repository for the old publications of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library and was also known as the ‘House of Books’. The classicist gates to the territory were built in the mid-19th century. The gates, which are symmetrical in composition, are decorated with stairs, shell motifs, and niches. Upon entering, you approach an ornate staircase which leads to the belfry on the right and the monastery courtyards. The gates have remained closed since the staff of the Martynas Mažvydas Library left.

The current Palace of the Government is a late modernist building completed in 1982, one of the most interesting works of the architect Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas. The administrative complex was intended for the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party. The palace is harmoniously integrated into its surroundings; the height of the building and its architectural style ensure it blends in cohesively with the adjacent buildings. At the time, buildings of political significance tended to be imposingly grandiose to show their significance. The architect had to go to Moscow to defend his modest design decisions; his argument was ideologically difficult to refute: “The Central Committee building must be as modest as Lenin himself.” The
main entrance is connected to Vincas Kudirka Square by a pedestrian bridge, but it is not emphasised and the door nestles in the shadows. The high, white-walled plane serves as a backdrop to the monument in the centre of the square (until 1991, a monument to the Soviet Army General Ivan Chernyakhovsky stood there). However, on closer inspection, you can see the massive brass-ornamented door with its wooden handles. They are so ornate on both sides, and behind them is a spacious and bright stairwell. The previously heavy door that was a challenge to pull now swings open automatically.

Between the wars, Kaunas was growing and modernising, while Vilnius became a peripheral city on the outskirts of Poland. In 1930, the city began to be rejuvenated, and public buildings began to be built on Gediminas Avenue (then Adam Mickiewicz Avenue). The Polish Social Insurance Company commissioned a branch building in Vilnius. Public health insurance and protection is a rather modern phenomenon requiring purpose-build premises. A competition to design such a building was won by two young Warsaw architects, Stanislaw Murczynski and Jerzy Soltan. The corner building on Gediminas Avenue consists of two wings. The five-storey structure is supported by pillars, and the entrance used to be bordered by a curved glass wall – the first revolving door in Vilnius was installed here. Unfortunately, these elements have been destroyed, but the café can still be accessed through a round vestibule, and the mosaic floor shows the outline of the former doorway. 
The four-storey building on Jakšto Street is more modest, with a curved, thin concrete roof and metal door. On the adjacent Jakšto and Kaštonų Streets, you can see more doors in the early 20th century historicist and modernist styles, so you can clearly see the kinds of modern materials that were used in the design of these modernist doors. There are some oval windows and convex shapes, while behind them, there are tambours and wooden doors replicating the shapes. These doors open onto the clinic, which, like the pharmacy, has been operating here since the very beginning.