Lithuania's capital is Vilnius, which has one of the largest and best-preserved baroque old towns in Central and Eastern Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and around 580,000 people. The country has 2.8 million inhabitants, speaks Lithuanian, a Baltic language and one of the most archaic living Indo-European tongues, and uses the euro. Its landscape is flat and green: about a third is forest, there is a lake district in the northeast and the Curonian Spit dunes on the coast, but no mountains, since the highest point, Aukštojas, reaches only 294 metres. Lithuania also holds the deepest history of the three, from the medieval Grand Duchy that once ran from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The best time to visit is late May to September for the long days, or December for Vilnius's Christmas market.
The capital: Vilnius
Lithuania's capital is Vilnius, home to around 580,000 people, in the southeast of the country near the Belarusian border. It has been the seat of Lithuanian power since the Middle Ages, when it was the centre of the Grand Duchy, and it remains the political and cultural heart of the country.
Vilnius is best known for its old town, one of the largest and best-preserved baroque quarters in Central and Eastern Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Church towers, courtyards and cobbled lanes fill a compact core built mostly in brick. Across the small Vilnelė river lies Užupis, a bohemian district that in 1997 declared itself an independent artists' republic, with a tongue-in-cheek constitution of its own nailed to a wall.
The landscape: forest, lakes, and no mountains
Lithuania is flat, not mountainous. The country has no mountains at all: its highest point, Aukštojas, southeast of Vilnius, reaches just 294 metres, closer to a wooded rise than a peak. If you are looking for alpine scenery, this is not the place.
What Lithuania offers instead is forest and water. About a third of the country is forest, and the northeast holds a lake district, Aukštaitija, dense with lakes, pine and quiet villages. The Nemunas, the country's main river, crosses it from the southeast and reaches the sea near Klaipėda. The Baltic coast is short, about 90 km, and it is the amber coast, where the fossil resin still washes up after storms.
The Curonian Spit
The single most distinctive place in Lithuania is the Curonian Spit, a long, thin sand-dune peninsula that separates a shallow lagoon from the open Baltic. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, shared with the Russian region of Kaliningrad, and it carries the highest drifting dunes in Europe, walls of pale sand that the wind still moves.
The resort of Nida, near the southern end of the Lithuanian half, is the base for a visit: a village of blue-and-brown fishermen's cottages where Thomas Mann kept a summer house. The Parnidis dune above the town, with its stone sundial, is the classic viewpoint over the sand and the lagoon. The spit is reached by ferry from Klaipėda and is at its best in the long days of summer.
The cities and places
After Vilnius, the largest city is Kaunas, in the centre of the country. It was the provisional capital between the two world wars, when Vilnius lay under Polish control, and that period left it a remarkable body of interwar modernist architecture, now UNESCO-listed. Klaipėda, on the coast, is the country's only port, a formerly German city known until 1945 as Memel, and the gateway to the Curonian Spit.
The set-piece day trips sit close to the capital. Trakai, half an hour west of Vilnius, is a red-brick castle on an island in Lake Galvė, the historic seat of the grand dukes and the home of the small Karaim community. Kernavė, further out, was a medieval capital and is now a UNESCO archaeological site of grassy hill-forts. And near Šiauliai in the north stands the Hill of Crosses, a low mound covered with more than 200,000 crosses left by pilgrims over two centuries.
What Lithuania is known for
Lithuania is known first for baroque Vilnius and the Curonian Spit dunes, and then for the Hill of Crosses and for amber, the Baltic gold worked along its coast. It is also, quietly, the deepest-rooted of the three countries: the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania was for a time the largest state in Europe, reaching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and the country stays deeply Catholic to this day.
Two things surprise visitors. One is basketball, which is less a sport here than the national passion, closer to what football is elsewhere. The other is the language: Lithuanian is one of only two surviving Baltic languages, alongside Latvian, and one of the most archaic living Indo-European tongues, retaining forms that linguists compare to Sanskrit.
The best time to visit
The best time to visit Lithuania is late May to September. This is the warm half of the year, when the coast and the Curonian Spit are open, the forests and lakes are green, and the days are long. June brings the longest days of all, with light in the sky until well past midnight.
December is the other window, for Vilnius's Christmas market on the cathedral square, known for an elaborately decorated tree that draws visitors on its own. Outside these two windows, the shoulder months of April and October are quieter and cheaper, with cooler, greyer weather.
- What is the capital of Lithuania?
- The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius. With around 580,000 people, it has one of the largest and best-preserved baroque old towns in Central and Eastern Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is also home to the Užupis artists' republic.
- What is Lithuania known for?
- Lithuania is known for baroque Vilnius, the Curonian Spit dunes, the Hill of Crosses, amber, basketball as the national passion, and its history as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It is a deeply Catholic country.
- Does Lithuania have mountains?
- No. Lithuania has no mountains. It is a flat country, and its highest point, Aukštojas, reaches only 294 metres. The landscape is defined by forest, lakes and a short coast with the Curonian Spit dunes, not peaks.
- Which cities and places should you visit in Lithuania?
- Vilnius first, then Kaunas and the port of Klaipėda. Add the island castle of Trakai, Nida on the Curonian Spit, the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, and the UNESCO site of Kernavė.
- What is the landscape of Lithuania like?
- Flat and green. About a third of Lithuania is forest, there is a lake district in the northeast, and the short 90 km amber coast carries the Curonian Spit dunes. There are no mountains anywhere, and the highest point is only 294 metres.
- When is the best time to visit Lithuania?
- Late May to September for the long days and the open Curonian Spit, with June the lightest month. December is the time for Vilnius's Christmas market and its elaborately decorated tree.
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