What is and where is Vilnius?
What is Lithuania?
Why have we landed here – in the Central courtyard of Vilnius University?
Vilnius spaces of historical importance and richness
Two enlightening panoramas of Vilnius
The Legend of Vilnius: Gediminas’ dream and the Iron Wolf
Vilnius symbols
Which Vilnius citizen is most famous in the World? Oginski, Dzerzhinsky or Zappa?
15 important events of Vilnius history
Who is the most outstanding person who lived in Vilnius – Čiurlionis, Mickiewicz or Miłosz?
Who is the most outstanding architect of Vilnius – Glaubitz, Guciewicz or Wiwulski?
The most famous Vilnius photographer – Bułhak?
Most legendary Vilnius masterpiece – the Church of St. Anne’s?
100 contemporary creative people of Vilnius. Portrait gallery by photographer Algimantas Aleksandravičius

The Legend of Vilnius: Gediminas’ dream and the Iron Wolf

The founding of Vilnius is described in the famous vibrant legend recorded in Lithuanian Annals. The Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas had been hunting bison and fell asleep in the valley, where his ancestors were burned after death, and had a dream that the wolf with iron armour was howling on the hill. The howling was so loud it seemed like a howl of a hundred wolves, hidden in that armour. In the morning Gediminas asked the head pagan priest to explain this dream to him. The priest told Gediminas: Mighty Ruler, through this dream the Gods express their will and if you fulfil it, power and glory awaits you. The iron wolf means that a strong castle and town, the capital of the country, has to be built in this place and the hundred howling wolves represents citizens who will make you and the city famous in the whole world.
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