Vilnius - Aušros Vartų Dievo Motina

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 university soon developed into one of the most important scientific and cultural centers in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Information about the city gate itself can be found in the previous upload.

This is the gate seen from the north side and here you can see why the gate has become an important pilgrimage site.

It houses a miraculous painting called Aušros Vartų Dievo Motina (Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn).

In the middle of the 17th century, the Carmelites built the Church of St. Teresa and their monastery near the Gate of Dawn, and the city government entrusted the Carmelites with the maintenance of the gate and the painting. In 1671, the monks built a wooden Marian chapel next to the gate tower. At that time the painting was already an object of public veneration.

In 1715 the wooden chapel burned down, but the painting was saved. In 1720 the present brick chapel was consecrated.

The origin of the painting is not known. With silver covering the entire painting, except for the face and hands, it was very hard to determine in what period the painting was created. In 1927, the silver cover was removed for the first time in decades. The painting was analyzed and restored. Based on the new data gathered during the restoration art historians concluded that the painting was completed around 1630–50. In the 1990s one of its planks was dated based on its tree rings. The scientists concluded that the oak grew from 1434–to 1620.

I did not take a photograph of the icon, but you can see it behind the window.