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Heaven Hell & the Snake Walking Tour by PhD Historian in Vilnius
$39.96
This is an experience gift voucher. The recipient will book the experience after
they redeem the gift voucher.
Overview
They kept a snake in the house and fed it milk by hand; killing it brought disaster. That is where the walk opens, at the Bastion, with the Basilisk the city invented to explain its dead. From there: the Gate of Dawn and its wall of 8,000 silver hearts, legs and eyes left to buy a cure from heaven; three martyrs killed in 1347 whose bodies still refuse to decay; the Basilian Gate, built by the church that went over to Rome in 1596 to keep Moscow from claiming it; St Casimir's, built by a son to undo the nation his father turned Protestant; where Stendhal watched Napoleon's army freeze in 1812; the lane where a mob burned the rival church; and Cathedral Square, where a pagan fire burns under the cathedral of the last country in Europe to give up its gods.
Led by Dr Simonas Strelcovas, PhD historian and former museum director, from his own research, not a script. Not what year a building went up, but how ordinary people believed. For curious travellers and readers of history.
Led by Dr Simonas Strelcovas, PhD historian and former museum director, from his own research, not a script. Not what year a building went up, but how ordinary people believed. For curious travellers and readers of history.
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Heaven Hell & the Snake Walking Tour by PhD Historian in Vilnius
Tour guide
Language: English
Human tour guide
Duration: 2 hours
- A ~2-hour guided walking lecture in English, led by a PhD historian
- Any optional church donation
- Meals
Meeting point
Meet in front of the main entrance to Bastėja (the Bastion), on Bokšto g. 20.
Return details
The walk ends at Vilnius Cathedral and Cathedral Square, next to Gediminas' Tower.
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Artillery Bastion (Basteja)This is the meeting point and the tour's opening scene — the site of the pagan household snake, once fed milk by hand as a sacred guardian, and the reputed lair of the Basilisk of Vilnius, a monster whose gaze alone could kill.
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Gate of DawnThe miracle icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the wall of roughly 8,000 silver votive offerings — hearts, legs, eyes — left by pilgrims seeking a cure, viewed from the street and the chapel entrance.
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Orthodox Church of the Holy SpiritThe resting place of the three martyrs of 1347 — the holy dead whose bodies, tradition holds, never decayed.
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Holy Trinity Church and Basilian GateThe gate and former Uniate church, created after Vilnius's Orthodox congregations entered union with Rome in 1596 while keeping their Eastern rite.
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Church of St. CasimirThe first Baroque church built in Vilnius, and the story of the family that turned the nation Protestant and back again within two generations.
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Didzioji GatveThe building where a young French officer, Henri Beyle — later famous as the novelist Stendhal — took shelter during Napoleon's frozen 1812 retreat. Thousands in army's mass grave, found in 2001.
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St. Michael's Church (Sv. Mykolo Baznycia)Two rival churches facing off across one narrow lane, and the mob confrontation that settled the dispute between them.
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Vilnius Cathedral SquareThe saint whose body reportedly never decayed, the mysterious three-handed painting, the pagan temple believed to lie beneath the cathedral, and the eternal flame marking the last pagan state in Europe. The walk ends here.
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You choose from 10,000+ experience gifts
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We deliver the eVoucher or the Physical box to the recipient
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Recipient books the experience and creates unforgettable memories!
Heaven Hell & the Snake Walking Tour by PhD Historian in Vilnius
$39.96
This is an experience gift voucher. The recipient will book the experience after
they redeem the gift voucher.
How it works?
01
—
You choose from 10,000+ experience gifts
02
—
We deliver the eVoucher or the Physical box to the recipient
03
—
Recipient books the experience and creates unforgettable memories!