First skyscraper in Vilnius: how modernity desacralised the city skyline
1
Basanavičiaus Street, 1907. / LMA Vrublevskių Library
Most contemporary skyscrapers that dominate the skyline of Vilnius are located near the Neris River waterfront. The very first ‘skyscraper’, however, was built over a century ago during the Tsarist era, writes Artūras Savko for the Neakivaizdinis Vilnius magazine.
A huge building in the neoclassicist and neo-baroque styles is located atop the street named after the Lithuanian National Revival activist Jonas Basanavičius.
On its roof, a giant sign used to proclaim until very recently that the building accommodates the Lithuanian Railways headquarters. While the railway workers are due to move out, the fate of the city s first skyscraper” remains uncertain.