"The Dream of Gediminas"

Feb 09, 2023

The legend of the founding of the capital Vilnius

Around the 14th century, Lithuania was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and its monarch, Grand Duke Gediminas, ruled from the capital, Trakai.

One day, Grand Duke Gediminas went hunting some twenty kilometers away. The hunt was successful, including the killing of Lithuania's largest animal, the Aurochs. Due to my joy and exhaustion, I decided not to return to Trakai that day but to camp in the Šventalagis valley. That night he had a very strange yet very vivid dream.

In a dream, Grand Duke Gediminas saw a great iron wolf standing on a hill. The howling of the wolf was so powerful that it was like hundreds of wolves howling at the same time. The next morning he went to the priest Lizdeika for advice.

The greatest sage of Lithuania, Lizdeika, said: "An iron wolf standing on a hill is a symbol of the great city that should stand there, and its powerful howl means that the whole world will one day know the prosperity of that capital city."

Archduke Gediminas immediately sent his men to the Valley of Šventalagis to build a castle. He named the city Vilnius and made it the new capital of Lithuania.

Gediminas Castle, built on the very hill that the Grand Duke Gediminas saw in his dream, is still visited by many people even today, spreading the glory of Vilnius to the world.

"Gediminas' dream"