A map of Užupis

An etching A map of Užupis presents a plan of Užupis: the quarter is contained in a bend in the Vilnia, with elaborately drawn streets, buildings, churches and monuments. But strange things can be seen in this ‘traditional’ plan: a 19th-century couple walk a dog, a modern-looking girl exercises, an upside-down photographer points an old-fashioned camera at a half-dressed woman. The picture is full of strange details and distorted proportions: a man on a horse is smaller than an acorn, a wisp is much higher than a boat on the river. The past and the present, reality and fantasy, internal and external worlds, are all mixed up, and this ironic and illogical mixture of details creates a particular image of Užupis, which is famous today for being a bohemian artists’ quarter.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2025

An etching A map of Užupis presents a plan of Užupis: the quarter is contained in a bend in the Vilnia, with elaborately drawn streets, buildings, churches and monuments. But strange things can be seen in this ‘traditional’ plan: a 19th-century couple walk a dog, a modern-looking girl exercises, an upside-down photographer points an old-fashioned camera at a half-dressed woman. The picture is full of strange details and distorted proportions: a man on a horse is smaller than an acorn, a wisp is much higher than a boat on the river. The past and the present, reality and fantasy, internal and external worlds, are all mixed up, and this ironic and illogical mixture of details creates a particular image of Užupis, which is famous today for being a bohemian artists’ quarter.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė
© LATGA, Vilnius 2025