The word Vilnius is a masculine form of the Vilnia river’s name (which is feminine) and refers to the river surge. Therefore the varieties of spelling in other languages (Vilna, Wilna, Vilno, Wilno) are, in fact, the same word adapted to the corresponding grammar. The area was inhabited since the Mesolithic era, however it became a capital city only since 1323 when Grand Duke Gediminas transferred the Seat from Trakai to Vilnius. A monument to Gediminas (author of the concept is a Lithuanian-American sculptor Vytautas Kašuba) stands in Cathedral Square near the site of the former pagan temple. The Grand Duke is depicted at the moment when he made a final decision, dismounted from his horse and blessed the land which will become the capital; its glory shall echo like an iron-wolf-like sound throughout the world. The howling Iron Wolf from the Grand Duke’s prophetic dream is depicted below. These two key names, Gediminas and the Iron Wolf (Geležinis vilkas), along with the motif of the howling iron wolf you can find quite a few everywhere in Vilnius, they are branched into the forms of daily life so naturally that are almost imperceptible, unless you’re purposely looking for them.
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These airlines operate to and from Vilnius International Airport:
Air Lituanica (Amsterdam, Berlin, Billund, Brussels, Edinburgh, Gothenburg, London, Munich, Paris, Prague, Tallinn), Air Baltic (Copenhagen, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riga, Rome-Fiumicino, Tallinn, London-Gatwick (seasonal)), Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo), Austrian Airlines (Vienna), BelAvia Belarusian Airlines (Minsk), Brussels Airlines (Brussels), El Al (Tel Aviv), Estonian Air (Tallinn), Finn Air (Helsinki), Grand Cru Airlines (a charter airline), LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw), Lufthansa (Frankfurt), Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm), Ryanair (Barcelona, Bremen, Brussels, Cork, Crete-Chania, Dublin, Liverpool, London-Stansted, Milan-Bergamo, Oslo, Paris-Beauvais, Rome-Ciampino), SAS Scandinavian Airlines (Copenhagen, Stockholm), Small Planet Airlines (a charter airline), Trans Aero (Moscow-Domodedovo), Turkish Airlines (Istambul), UIA Ukrainian International Airlines (Bangkok, Geneva, Istambul, New York, Kiev, Tashkent, Tbilisi), UTair Aviation (Moscow-Vnukovo), Wizz Air (Ålesund, Barcelona, Bergen, Doncaster-Sheffield, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Liverpool, London-Luton, Malmö, Madrid, Milan-Bergamo, Oslo, Paris, Rome-Fiumicino, Tel Aviv).
Kaunas International Airport (IATA: KUN), is the second busiest civil airport in Lithuania located ~100km west of Vilnius in a small town Karmėlava NE of Kaunas.
Airport Transfer