Vilna

Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, is situated at the junction of the Rivers Vileika and Vilja; population 165,000 in 1910. Its foundation is traced back to the twelfth, and even, by Polish writers, to the tenth century; but its historical origins must be referred to the year 1323, when Giedymin, Grand Prince of Lithuania, set up his capital there, wrote a letter to John XXII, and made treaty with the Brethren of the Sword. The German Crusaders partly devastated the city in 1383. When the grand Prince Jagiello, in 1383, received baptism and married Hedwige, Queen of Poland, taking the name of Wladislaus II, and uniting Poland with Lithuania, the religious and political prosperity of Vilna began. In 1577 it became the seat of a flourishing academy which gained a great literary reputation, especially under the Jesuits. In the later half of the seventeenth century and the earlier of the eighteenth it suffered much from war, fire, and pestilence. United with Russia in 1794, it ceased to be the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Polish insurrection of 1831 and 1863 exposed it to cruel reprisals; from 1870 it has developed industrially and commercially. +