The Image of Vilnius, a Multicultural and Multinational City, as Presented in Late 19th and Early 20th-Century Tourist Guides

Abstract

Vilnius, a city rich in cultural and ethnic diversity, has been reflected in studies on culture, architecture, literature, and sociology, while poets and prose writers have devoted numerous verses to celebrating its beauty, variety, and uniqueness. It is a place where the customs, traditions, and histories of many nations converge, each contributing to the development of this metropolis. An intriguing interpretative approach to exploring the Lithuanian capital is to examine it through travel accounts and guidebooks. The first such publications on Vilnius began to appear as early as the nineteenth century. A brief historical overview of the development of travel literature demonstrates that it is impossible to establish a single coherent definition of the travel guide as a genre. Nevertheless, tracing the emergence of these publications can facilitate their classification within broader literary and cultural frameworks. The ways in which the city was represented not only offer engaging reading material but also provide a methodological key for “reading the city” from various perspectives. The extensive archival material preserved in these early guidebooks constitutes a valuable source of historical and architectural knowledge: it reveals both the character of the city and the personal approaches of such authors as A.H. Kirkor, T. Tripplin, E. Kulwieć, A. Juškievičius, J. Maceikas, among others. This article aims to present, in chronological order, the most significant guidebooks published since the nineteenth century, to highlight their diversity, and to indicate the similarities and differences in their portrayals of Vilnius, thereby underscoring the city’s multicultural and multinational character.