Meriting a spot in the top 12 Vilnius hall of fame* is without a doubt the Bernardine gardens in the Vilnius old town. What is now a city park was first landscaped by Bernardine monks in the 1400s, and was turned into something resembling its current form in the late 1800s, when Vilnius’ first urban boom came with the arrival of the train, connecting Vilnius with Warsaw and St Petersburg. The park, which was refurbished in 2013 with a helping hand from the EU, is a delight to walk through. Kids have two huge playgrounds at their disposal with an array of fanciful equipment to climb and swing. Always within earshot of the pearly ripples of the Vilnia stream is a dancing fountain, and beautifully landscaped grounds with flowers and plants, carefully labelled, to delight visitors in any season. It also acts as a green artery for the tourist trail in the city, connecting the artist quarters of Užupis, the old town’s main attraction Pylimo gatve, the huge Vilnius cathedral and the main avenue Gedimino Prospektas, and the most famous landmark in town – Gedminas hill and tower. I have to admit that it was spending a day in the Bernardine gardens that I first felt a pang of awe and wonder when first arriving in the city, and I can only hope that many others like me have felt the same way.
* What is “Dozen to go? To wrap up the blog, I have picked out a dozen of the things during my year in Vilnius that I am most likely to carry with me in my memories of the place. They are in no particular order, and in any event any effort to rank them would amount to comparing apples with oranges.
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