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"Narrow cobblestone streets and an orgy of Baroque: almost like a Jesuit city somewhere in the middle of Latin America," wrote the author Czeslcaw Milosz of prewar VILNIUS . Soviet-era satellite suburbs aside, it's a description which still rings true today, though the city Milosz knew was, in many ways, a different one to modern Vilnius. Between the wars Vilnius, known as Wilno , belonged to Poland and was inhabited mainly by Poles and Jews, who played such a prominent role in the city's life that it was known as the "Northern Jerusalem". Though now firmly part of Lithuania, Vilnius is still a cosmopolitan place - around twenty percent of its population is Polish and another twenty percent is Russian - though with just 578,600 inhabitants it has an almost village-like atmosphere, making it an easy place to get to know.
At the centre of Vilnius, poised between the medieval and nineteenth-century parts of the city is Cathedral Square (Katedros aikste). To the south of here along Pilies gatve and Didzioji gatve is the Old Town , containing perhaps the most impressive concentration of Baroque architecture in northern Europe. West of the square in the New Town is Gedimino prospektas , a nineteenth-century boulevard that's the focal point of the city's commercial and administrative life. Wedged between the Old Town and the Gedimino prospektas areas, the traditionally Jewish areas of Vilnius were shorn of their populations in the 1941-1945 period, but retain a sprinkling of worthwhile sights.
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