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Vilnius

Capital of LithuaniaAt the meeting point of the Vilnia and Neris rivers, in the south-east of Lithuania, Vilnius sits well inland from the country's Baltic coast.

Why it's the capital

Grand Duke Gediminas first mentioned the city in his letters of 1323, and it was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1795. Legend says Gediminas dreamed of an Iron Wolf howling on a hill, and a priest explained that a castle and a city should stand there.

Fun facts

  1. The city takes its name from the Vilnia River, whose old Lithuanian name means "ripple".
  2. The Lithuanian flag was raised again on Gediminas' Tower on 7 October 1988, during the movement to restore independence.
  3. One of the places claimed to be the geographical midpoint of Europe lies about 26 km from Vilnius.

Finding it on the globe

Tap the south-east of Lithuania, not the coast. Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is about 170 km further to the south-east.

Easy to mix up

Between 1920 and 1939, when Vilnius was part of Poland, Kaunas served as Lithuania's temporary capital, so Kaunas is sometimes picked by mistake.

Sources: Wikipedia: Vilnius, Wikipedia: Gediminas' Tower, Wikipedia: Kaunas