Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital city of Lithuania.

Two rivers meet there: the Neris and the Vilnia. On a hill above them stand the ruins of an old castle. The old town has twisty streets and many churches.

Vilnius is the capital and biggest city of Lithuania, a country in northern Europe beside the Baltic Sea. It stands where the small Vilnia River flows into the larger Neris, among wooded hills. About 618,000 people lived there in 2026.

Vilnius was first written about in 1323, when it was already the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a very large state. Its old town, with narrow, winding streets and buildings from many centuries, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vilnius, capital and largest city of Lithuania, lies at the confluence of the Neris (Russian: Viliya) and the Vilnia, on glacial hills occupied on and off since the Neolithic. Statistics Lithuania estimated 617,984 residents in the Vilnius city municipality on January 1, 2026 (as compiled by City Population); Britannica gives 546,155 for 2021.

UNESCO notes that by 1323, the date of the first written reference, Vilnius was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which Britannica describes as geographically the largest state in Europe by the 15th century. The city remained the political center of the Grand Duchy until the end of the 18th century, and UNESCO credits it with a profound influence on the culture and architecture of much of eastern Europe.

On a hill in Vilnius stand the ruins of an old castle.

From its tower, people look out over the city. Below are old churches with towers and domes. One of them, St. Anne's, is more than 400 years old.

The ruins of the Castle of Gediminas stand on Castle Hill, high above the old town. Below them, narrow streets wind up and down the wooded slopes. The old town has buildings in many styles: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical.

The Church of St. Anne, from the 1500s, is built in the Gothic style. About a dozen churches from the 1600s are Baroque, among them the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. The cathedral was first built in 1387; its present form dates from 1801.

Britannica describes the ruins of the Castle of Gediminas on Castle Hill as dominating the old town, whose narrow, winding streets climb the wooded slopes around the confluence. UNESCO notes that a wooden castle fortified the hill around 1000 and that the historic center keeps a typically medieval street pattern of small streets and irregular blocks, with large squares inserted later.

Surviving buildings span the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical styles: the 16th-century Gothic Church of St. Anne, a dozen 17th-century Baroque churches, notably SS. Peter and Paul, and the cathedral, founded in 1387 but in its present form from 1801. UNESCO inscribed the Vilnius Historic Centre in 1994 for its impressive complex of buildings, its medieval layout and its natural setting, preserved despite invasions and partial destruction.

Vilnius has a very old university, more than 400 years old.

Students study there, and grown-ups work in offices and factories. The city has theaters and museums for everyone.

Vilnius is the cultural center of Lithuania. Vilnius University, which opened in 1579, is the country's largest university and leading research center. There are also schools of fine arts and engineering, theaters and museums.

Factories in Vilnius make machine tools, farm machines, electronics, clothes and food. For centuries, people of many backgrounds have lived here, and famous writers such as Adam Mickiewicz and Czesław Miłosz were connected with the city.

Britannica describes Vilnius as Lithuania's cultural center and an important industrial city producing machine tools, agricultural machinery, electrical and electronic apparatus, textiles, clothing and foodstuffs. Vilnius University, reorganized and closed several times over the centuries, is Lithuania's largest university and leading research institution; Vilnius Gediminas Technical University dates from 1969, and there are institutes of fine arts, teacher-training schools, theaters and museums.

The city's multiethnic past shapes its culture. Britannica notes its outsized role in Polish literature, through writers such as Adam Mickiewicz and Czesław Miłosz, and its long history as a center of Jewish learning and publishing in Hebrew and Yiddish.