Between Greeks and Latins: Pilies Street in Medieval Vilnius

Abstract

Pilies Street is one of the oldest in the city of Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The street’s name is connected with its starting point, the territory of the castles of the grand dukes. In the early 15th century, Vilnius City Hall was erected at the south end of Pilies Street. Pilies Street is not only an inseparable part of the city’s earliest spatial structure, but is also directly connected with the Christian communities of Vilnius, when it was still a pagan city. During the earliest period of the city’s development Christian immigrants, both Orthodox and Catholic, gathered around Pilies Street. The paradox is that very little information is available about the emergence and formation of the central street of the city. The purpose of this paper is to examine more carefully the early history of what is perhaps the main street in Vilnius and the changes over the course of time. This becomes possible after combining archaeological material with the sparse information from written sources, and also after making use of data from the investigation of the historical natural environment.