Vilnius - then and now

Is this the opera building, constructed in soviet times, that had bad acustics on the last pic. I like old more than new, but it is nice to see that city is developing.

Very nice photo compare of today and old Vilnius really great

matrixmxp said:

Is this the opera building, constructed in soviet times, that had bad acustics on the last pic. I like old more than new, but it is nice to see that city is developing.

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Bad acoustics? Who told you that?

Wouldn't this look so much better without cars?(I'm an utopist, I know):


Anyway, thanks for the pictures!

^^

I couldn’t agree more, I am for cars-free old town

Pansori said:

Bad acoustics? Who told you that?

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Yes - there was a story that the architects actually copied the original design from some opera house in Norway, but they changed the interior project and screwed the acoustics big time.

Later on they had to do something about it and it was decided to attach a special stone plates to the ceiling to reflect the sound. People say it worked out, but the sound is still far from perfect compared to other operas in Europe.

Great pictures - very interesting to see how the cars are filling in the city landscape.

Big Cat said:

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What happened to middle cupola?

ABC LV said:

What happened to middle cupola?

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The original catholic Saint Casimir's church didn't have these domes. It was added when the imperial russian government converted it to the orthodox one (in picture "then" it still is orthodox). After WW1 it was again returned to catholics and orthodox atributes (some domes and onions) were removed.

Some of the windows seem to have been boarded up as well. The domes look more central European baroque than Russian, but oh well.

Hello Big Cat, thank you for your photos. I am looking some photos of Lithuania and trying to understand the country of my family. My grandparents are from Kaunas.

Vilnius is becoming a very beautiful city after restoring the old buildings, which i saw there are many of them still pending to be restored.

Do you have any information if they are planning to rebuild the old Gediminas upper Castle? I saw that they rebuilt the Royal Palace near the church but I think it would be very nice for them to rebuild the old Castle on that hill too.

Regards

Poor quality comparison. Almost all old photos were taken from better angles.

For example:




Should be compared to something like this:


This is just a slight difference but some angles are completely different (photos of town hall square for example).

Edj said:

Hello Big Cat, thank you for your photos. I am looking some photos of Lithuania and trying to understand the country of my family. My grandparents are from Kaunas.

Vilnius is becoming a very beautiful city after restoring the old buildings, which i saw there are many of them still pending to be restored.

Do you have any information if they are planning to rebuild the old Gediminas upper Castle? I saw that they rebuilt the Royal Palace near the church but I think it would be very nice for them to rebuild the old Castle on that hill too.

Regards

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Thanks, Edj! It is so nice to find out that you have roots in Lithuania. It is even nicer to know that you are interested in your roots

Yeah, the Royal Palace is on the way of being rebuild. That's the state of the progress:



Considering the rebuild of old Gediminas upper Castle, I have heard that there were plans in the heads of some people to do this. And I am very eager to see the full rebuild of our castle. But I think we will have to wait for this a little bit

Take a look here: 'Documentary films about Baltic States'

You will find more information about your roots there

joamox said:

Some of the windows seem to have been boarded up as well. The domes look more central European baroque than Russian, but oh well.

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I think they built such domes to fit to the baroque style. The original church was quite different comparing to both variants which was shown. It had higher towers and frontone (similar to Il Gesu church in Rome). The towers were shortened and frontone replaced with dome when it was converted to the orthodox church. It was never returned to it's first look, just the dome removed ant onion on central dome replaced with crown of Saint Casimir.

Curch of Il Gesu in Rome:

Big Cat said:

Thanks, Edj! It is so nice to find out that you have roots in Lithuania. It is even nicer to know that you are interested in your roots

Yeah, the Royal Palace is on the way of being rebuild. That's the state of the progress:

Considering the rebuild of old Gediminas upper Castle, I have heard that there were plans in the heads of some people to do this. And I am very eager to see the full rebuild of our castle. But I think we will have to wait for this a little bit

Take a look here: 'Documentary films about Baltic States'

You will find more information about your roots there

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Thanks for the informations Big Cat.

Not only I am interested in my roots but my entire family in particular got lithuanian citizenship. My grandparents are WWII refugees (that helped a lot to get my citizenship), like many of other emigrated lithuanians that time. They were relocated by US Army in Brazil in 1948 with other many thousands of baltic people. There is a strong baltic community here.

My grandparents even traveled to Vilnius shortly after Lithuania independence in 91 was recognized to see back members of our family that was splited for so many years.

I studied a lot about Lithuania history most by curiosity but there are some questions that books can't answer. If you have some time to answer some of them I would really appreciate.

Also thanks for the Royal Palace photos. I hope to take a visit to Lithuania soon and meet the other part of my family!

Regards

You know, my former english teacher at university is from Brazil - she is a descendant of WWII refugees and has a double citizenship I think that's so great that there is a possibility for you to get a Lithuanian citizenship. After we have joined EU and NATO, it is even useful

I would be really glad to help you with my answers. Of course, if I would know them

They are a very nice pictures, do you have more from Vilnius, Klaipeda and kaunas ???

I do - www.panoramas.lt

Restore the park

Rebasepoiss said:

Wouldn't this look so much better without cars?(I'm an utopist, I know):

Anyway, thanks for the pictures!

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Why don't they restore the park in front of the building with colonnade.