Vilnius: The Gates of Dawn and Baroque Old Town

Vilnius has one of the most intact baroque old towns in Central Europe — a UNESCO World Heritage Site that the organisation described as having 'an exceptional concentration of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical buildings.' The city was largely undamaged in World War II (it was occupied rather than fought over), and its Baroque churches, Catholic and Orthodox, are in extraordinary condition. St Anne's Church (1499), in its red-brick Lithuanian Gothic, is perhaps the most beautiful small church in the Baltic. Napoleon saw it in 1812 and said he wished he could carry it back to Paris in his hand.

The Gates of Dawn (Ausros Vartai) at the southern entrance of the old town contain, in a small chapel above the arch, a silver-clad icon of the Madonna — the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Gates of Dawn, painted in the early 17th century. The image is venerated by Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and even some Jewish visitors, and the chapel above the arch is open to a continuous stream of pilgrims and visitors throughout the day. The experience of passing beneath the arch and looking up at the chapel — where candles burn around the silver icon and people kneel on the stone floor — is quietly overwhelming.

Vilnius rewards exploration beyond the old town. The Uzupis district — a self-declared artistic republic with its own constitution (posted in dozens of languages on a wall) and a permanent art installation in every alleyway — is Europe's most charming urban experiment. The Paneriai Memorial outside the city (where 100,000 people, mostly Jewish, were murdered by the Nazis between 1941-1944) is sobering and essential. The food scene, centered on the Hales market area, has improved enormously in recent years.