Spanish Of The Baltics

The Lithuanians think of themselves as the "Spanish of the Baltics" because they see themselves as loud, red blooded and always celebrating, which they associate with the Spanish. Paul and I were unable to confirm this but we did consult our usual musuem experts to ask about their origins. The musuem personnel agreed that Lithuanians are more like the Latvians than Estonians but felt their language was more like Russian (with some Swedish) than Germanic (like Lativian). Lithuania (pop 3.6 million) covers 65,200 square kilometers, same as Latvia (half of Greece). Like Poland, the country disappeared officially from maps of Europe in the early 1900's and like Latvia and Estonia was occupied by Russia and became independent in 1991. Unlike its fellow Baltics, ethnic Lithuanians comprise a major 82% of the population. Lithuania is very flat with 4,000 lakes and 470 different types of butterfly!!!

The UNESCO protected capital, Vilnius (pop 600,000), founded 1321, has the largest old town in Europe (top photo, taken from the Gediman Tower) and before WWII had 100,000 jews (out of a total pop of 230,000) and 105 synagogues. The Nazis exterminated 100,000 (70,000 jews) in a death camp in Panerai (10km from Vilnius) where there is now an outdoor memorial (bottom photo). Only one synagogue now remains.

Vilnius old town is very well laid out and is the home of the unusual and rare "Baroque" styled Russian Orthodox Churches. We visited two in town and the monastery of the Holy Spirit which contains the preserved relics of three martyrs: Sts Anthony, Joann and Eustachius. Other city sites visited include: the 1579 University, 1363 Gates of Dawn (preserved city gate with miraculous Catholic icon of the Virgin housed in a chapel above the gate), 1615 St Casimirs Baroque Church, 1581 St Annes Gothic Church and the Three White Crosses on a hill at the start of the old town, where 3 monks were crucified in the 17th century.

Finally we visited the 17th century castle at Trakai (28km from city, second photo) where most of the cities newlyweds take their wedding photos (we saw more than 10 brides that day!). Distance travelled so far: 16,795km.