Page 241 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

VILNIUS  239

Other rooms have over 150
maps, including some of
Lithuania dating from 1507.
The book section has around
7,000 volumes of unique
publica tions. The collection
includes a number of books
by famous illustrators.
Varnelis, renowned for
creating optical illusions
based on geometric patterns
in his paintings, rarely meets
visitors now.
z Artillery Bastion
Bastėja
Bokšto 20/18. Map 2 E4. Tel 261 2149.
Open 10am–6pm Wed–Sun. &
Constructed as part of the
Image of the Virgin Mary, seen through the window of the Gates of Dawn city defences in the first half of
the 17th century, the bastion
k Gates of Dawn l Kazys Varnelis had fallen into ruin by the end
Aušros vartai Museum of the 18th century. It was
Aušros vartų 12. Map 2 D5. Tel 212 Kazio Varnelio namai-muziejus used as an orphanage and the
city’s pre-eminent rubbish
3513. 5 7:30am, 9am, 10am, 5:30pm, Didžioji 26. Map 2 D4. Tel 279 1644.
6:30pm Mon–Sat; 9am, 9:30am, 11am, Open 10am–4pm Tue–Sat (by heap, and was finally cleaned
6:30pm Sun. ∑ ausrosvartai.lt appointment only). & 8 up by the Germans during
World War I to store ammu-
The Classical chapel of Gates of nition. Its cool interior made
Dawn follows the centuries-old An extraordinary collection of it an ideal space for storing
custom of hav ing a chapel or a modern art, maps, graphics, vegetables during the early
religious image in every gateway paintings, sculptures, vintage Soviet period.
to safeguard the city from furniture, books and ceramics, In 1987 it was opened as
outside enemies and to protect as well as art from around a museum, and in 2014 it
departing travellers. The focus the world, fill the home of the opened again following
of this chapel is The Madonna of famous Lithuanian-American renovation. Although there
Mercy, an image reputed to have artist Kazys Varnelis (b.1917). is not a great deal to see, the
miracle-working powers. It was Some of the rooms look truly museum holds a certain fasci-
pain ted on oak in the 1620s and avant-garde, mixing Italian nation for history enthu siasts.
encased in silver 150 years later. Renaissance furniture and Outside, there are pleasant
The miracles attributed to it were French Baroque with 20th- views of the Old Town and
faithfully recorded by nuns at the century American modern art. the hilly Užupis district.
neighbouring Carmelite convent.
The walls surrounding the
painting are covered with silver
votive offerings .
The Classical chapel that
houses the image dates from
1829, when it was rebuilt from an
earlier Baroque version. A flight of
steps leads up to the chapel from
a door in the street. A site of
pilgrimage, it was one of the first
stops for Pope John Paul II when
he visited Lithuania in 1993.
This is the only gateway from
the early 16th-century city walls
to have survived. It becomes
more evident when viewed
from the outside, where round
holes that were used for
cannons are still visible. The redbrick Artillery Bastion, dating from the 17th century

238-239.indd 239 15/02/17 10:16 am