Vilnius: The City of Wanderers

The book by Lithuanian-Canadian geographer and cultural historian Laimonas Briede tells the story of the multicultural capital of Lithuania from its "birth in Europe" in the 14th century to the present day. Vilnius as a "geographical personality" and "historical hero" is portrayed through the eyes of the "strangers" who visited it. Drawing on numerous sources in various languages, the author traces the cartographic, political, and cultural meanings attributed to the city during different periods of its history. The capital of a pagan principality through the eyes of Catholic missionaries; a baroque city in the realms of mythical Sarmatia as seen by European cartographers; a Polish province through the eyes of the famous traveler and naturalist Georg Forster; a city during the 1812 war viewed through the eyes of Viennese doctor Joseph Frank; Vilna as part of the Russian Empire through the eyes of Russian classics (Alexander Ostrovsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy); an occupied city during World War I as seen by a German soldier-traveler; mysterious Jewish Vilna through the eyes of German modernist writer Alfred Döblin — these are just some of the themes included in the polyphonic narrative about Vilnius.