Vilnius. Adam Mickiewicz Street

The present Gedimino Avenue, the main street in the New Town, was laid out in the last decades of the 19th century, and was both a result and a symbol of the new capitalism on the map of the city. The wide and straight avenue is lined with trees, and is made up of large buildings, such as banks, restaurants, hotels, shops, and administrative and educational institutions. Artists who loved the romantic Old Town did not like painting the New Town, with its cosmopolitan architecture; and that is why this watercolour by S. Butkiewicz, who lived in Vilnius in the interwar period, is quite an exception. He painted this view of Gedimino Avenue, which was then called Mickiewicz Avenue, showing the huge Neoclassical building of the Court of Justice, which was built in 1897. It depicts the wide avenue on a sunny summer’s day, and the mighty building of the court, with a policeman on duty, and an electricity pylon, a sign of the modern infrastructure, in the foreground. It shows Vilnius as a modern city.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė

The present Gedimino Avenue, the main street in the New Town, was laid out in the last decades of the 19th century, and was both a result and a symbol of the new capitalism on the map of the city. The wide and straight avenue is lined with trees, and is made up of large buildings, such as banks, restaurants, hotels, shops, and administrative and educational institutions. Artists who loved the romantic Old Town did not like painting the New Town, with its cosmopolitan architecture; and that is why this watercolour by S. Butkiewicz, who lived in Vilnius in the interwar period, is quite an exception. He painted this view of Gedimino Avenue, which was then called Mickiewicz Avenue, showing the huge Neoclassical building of the Court of Justice, which was built in 1897. It depicts the wide avenue on a sunny summer’s day, and the mighty building of the court, with a policeman on duty, and an electricity pylon, a sign of the modern infrastructure, in the foreground. It shows Vilnius as a modern city.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė