Vilnius - Dievo Motinos Ėmimo į Dangų soboras

Vilnius is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of about 600.000. Before WWII, Vilnius was one of the largest Jewish centers in Europe which led to the nickname "the Jerusalem of the North".

The city was first mentioned in written sources as Vilna in 1323 as the capital city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, built a wooden castle on a hill in the city. The city became more widely known after he wrote a circular letter of invitation to Germans and Jews to the principal Hansa towns in 1325, offering free access into his domains to men of every order and profession. At this time Vilnius was facing raids of the Teutonic Order, although they never captured the castle, large portions of the town were burned down between 1365 and 1383. English king Henry IV spent the full year of 1390 supporting the unsuccessful siege of Vilnius by Teutonic Knights with his 300 fellow knights.

Between 1503 and 1522, the city was surrounded by a city wall to protect it from Crimean Tatar attacks. The city reached the peak of its development during the reign of Sigismund II. Augustus, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, settled here in 1544. After the foundation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569, the city experienced a further boom, as Stephen Báthory, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, founded the Jesuit College of Vilnius (= Vilnius University) in 1579.

The Cathedral of the Assumption was originally built in 1346 by Grand Duke Algirdas for his Orthodox wife Uliana of Tver. It was then dedicated to St. Alexius. It was actually erected before the Christianization of Lithuania and it became one of the most important spiritual centers in the Grand Duchy.

After the Catholicization of the country, the princes Ostrogsky put the church under protection. They also covered the repair costs after the dome collapsed in 1606. In 1609 the cathedral was transferred to the Greek Catholic Church and was rebuilt.

After the great fire in the city in 1748, the cathedral was was abandoned In 1785 it was rebuilt in baroque style and was destroyed again by the Russian army during the Kościuszko Uprising. The badly damaged building was sold to Vilnius University in 1808. It modernized the building and for half a century the church was used as an anatomical theater, library and for other university facilities.

The old Orthodox church was converted back into a Russian Orthodox church during the Russification period.and got reconstructed from 1865 to 1868. During WWII the cathedral was severely damaged. It was restored and by now belongs to the Russian Orthodox community.