10 Most Beautiful Panoramas of Vilnius

The oldest and most favourite observation point of Vilnius panoramas was in the west part of the former Vingriai Hill – the current Mindaugas Street along its entire length. From there it was most convenient to view the whole of the Old Town from the Neris River. It was not by chance that having risen to the height of a bird’s flight in his imagination Frans Hoogenbergh showed not only the panorama of the city from that point but also the entire city plan.

The Radziwiłł’s graphic artist Thomas Makowski in 1600 made the famous Vilnius panorama, which vividly illustrates the heyday of the capital of Lithuania. This is a unique view of the city, which by exactness of drawing and its high artistic value outdid all the previous views of Vilnius. All most important buildings of the city of the 17th century are present here: from the ensemble of the Grand Duke’s palace and the castles to the Basilian Monastery on the right. The view was drawn directly from nature, from the west part of the city. This is testified to by the self-portrait of the artist in which he represented himself when drawing on the slope of the hill.

During the Baroque period, a majestic silhouette of Vilnius with several dozens of architectural dominants was created. The brush of Franciszek Smuglewicz recorded the panoramas of the Baroque city with documentary exactness in his sepias. Vilnius is represented from the west suburban hills in two pictures: one picture represents the north part of the city with its castles and the other one – its south part. Famous Baroque churches and the urban structure of the Old Town inherited from Baroque testify to the fact that the city reached the height of its beauty in that epoch.

The German soldier Johan Grutzka drew a unique panorama of the city of Vilnius seen from the tower of the Castle Hill encompassing the entire city with its suburbs. The panorama was drawn with a feather in a contour line exceptionally for cognitive purposes. All the buildings within the range of vision were recorded carefully, professionally, in great detail. This panorama can be considered to be an inventory picture of Vilnius of that time, an important historical document.

The beginning of photographs of Vilnius dates back to the 1860s. The earliest photo views were created by photographers of a new generation who began to work in Vilnius around 1858-1860 and produced albums of their photographs of Vilnius. Abdon Korzon is considered to be the first Vilnius photographer to take pictures in the open air. In 1860 he photographed a series of Vilnius landscapes. Albert Swieykowski managed to convey the beauty of architecture and panoramas of the city in his photographs in the album of Vilnius photographs (around 1865).

The most distinguished photographer of Vilnius of the second half of the 19th century was Józef Czechowicz. Within two decades of his activity in Vilnius he made over 200 photographs of Vilnius and its environs of great artistic and historical iconographic value. He made albums of the views of Vilnius from his photographs and was awarded a gold medal for them in Paris, two silver medals in Moscow and received the Pope’s message of thanks. He created a unique panorama of Vilnius consisting of two parts from Bekesh Hill, which he combined himself.

“If one looks from the east one shall see the phatamorgan of the Vilnius valley sunk in the mist, enclosed by the wooded heights; one shall see a bluish golden sea through which the church spires sail as if they were mastheads of a huge flotilla...” (Jan Bułhak. Wędrówki fotografa. Wilno, 1936). All large cities have their own photographers. Jan Bułhak (1876-1950) can be deservedly called a photographer of Vilnius whose credo was to photograph with one’s heart. Knowing the fundamentals of art history and theory he devoted exceptional attention to architecture, and upon discovering the highest sites, he created panoramas confirming the existence of the beautiful Baroque city. Panoramic views reveal the entire beauty of the city, its harmony with the landscape. Bułhak also recorded the views and panoramas of the city destroyed in 1944.

A real romantic of the city of Vilnius was a painter Juozapas Kamarauskas who gave not only an ordinary isometric perspective in the panoramic views of Vilnius but also created the views of Vilnius of the type of aerial photographs, combined in semi-circular frames and differently orientated. The city is observed from the north side.

The city of Vilnius located in a ravine and surrounded by the hills has many attractive observation points from which majestic panoramas of the city open. In 1998, on the initiative of the Vilnius City Municipality, many Old Town observation points in Subačius Street, on the Hill of Three Crosses and other places were set up. A beautiful view opens up from the west hills of Vilnius currently called the panorama from Mindaugas Street. Gediminas Tower of the Upper Castle remains the most attractive observation point of the Old Town.

“Wherever a visitor of Vilnius looks he sees a breathtaking view…” in 1837 wrote one of the first historians of the city, archaeologist Michał Baliński. More than 170 years later, his observations became even more relevant – the beauty of Vilnius panoramas further remains a source of inspiration for many artists, painters, photographers and poets. Vilnius unexpectedly surprised a German officer who came to Vilnius by chance during the First World War; it inspired a modernist painter; and charmed a prominent photographer of Lithuanian cultural heritage – each of them recorded the original panorama of the old city.