Day 21. Walk along the embankment of the Neris River. Part I. Left side. Upstream.

#walksinVilnius


Today we will have a walk along the embankment of the Neris River.

Let's begin with the left enbankment of the Neris. And let's start our walk at the Žvėrynas Bridge, and walk towards the the city centre.  The Žvėrynas Bridge connect the city centre, i.e. Gediminas avenue with the Žvėrynas district and it was build in 1906. Before that, the Žvėrynas district wasn't even concerned as a part of the city and it was just a suburb -  a resort district with luxury villas to rest in.

the Žvėrynas Bridge

& Orthodox Church of Our Lady of the Sign (built in 1903).

(LT: Dievo Motinos ikonos „Ženklas iš dangaus“ cerkvė)

(#OrthodoxVilnius)

The brigde with a one of the sculptures of the Signs of Vilnius under it  - 

the Ship - Screscent (Laivas - Pusmėnulis) created by Kunotas Vildžiūnas

Let us turn a little back and just go under the proceeding brigde - Liubartas Bridge (the new Žverynas Bridge). Here, under the bridge from the left enbankment you can see two amazing Atlants by Ernest Zacharevic.

#VilniusStreetArt

PS. sorry for poor quality of the last photo :(

As we walk towards the city centre, we pass The Seimas buidings.

DEVIATION to the right: the Seimas fountain

Later, we pass a strange figure (a monument or a sculpture) called  Puskalnis  (Half Mountain) by Robertas Antinis (  created for Vilnius2009) just in the front of Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences.

Puskalnis and two more sculptures (Two-Storey and The Enbankment Arch) were created in 2009 for Vilnius2009 - the Capital of European Culture.

We pass one more strange sculpture:

it's Dviaukštis (Two-Storey) by Mindaugas Navakas.

Here comes the serious Geležinio Vilko Bridge and guess what! That's right - a normal paved urban path is gone, and a simple foothpath begins. The unpaved footpath longs till aproximatelly the White Bridge ( Baltasis tiltas)  - our beloved bridge for pedestrians and a paved urban path returns.

the White Bridge at summer sunset

the White Bridge in the evening

The White Bridge with one of the sculptures of The Signs of Vilnius

Called The Ray-Spear (Spindulys - Ietis) (photos from the right bank)

We pass The White Bridge continue our walk till our the most controversial bridge the Green Bridge (in Lithuanian) :) :) 

Oh Well, we residents of Lithuania and Vilnius just love discussing this bridge and it's history!

More on the Green Bridge

#GreenBridge

One more sculpture The Chain under the Green Bridge (fron the right bank)

#the Green Bridge

This is the famous day 19th of July 2015 when all four statues were taken off from the bridge:

Then we pass under the newest Vilnius bridge ( built in 2003) - the Mindaugas Bridge.

on April 7 the ship Riga ready for a new season 2016

Few hundreds meters away we have  the confluence of the Neris and the Vilnele and the path is over.

the confluence of the Vilnelė and the Neris

the confluence and a view of a legendary Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports

(which is worth a separate post)

Since the path is gone, we move to the other side of the Neris. We use for this purpose use :) The Mindaugas Brigde. 

And here we continue our walk on the right side ( a separate post. Part II. Right side).

The enbankments of the Neris have a great potential to become a leasure and activity centre for all residents and visitors of Vilnius.

However, something is lacking. 

Perhaps money, political understanding, strong will or simply wish and determination.

Let's prolong our walk on the right embankment of the Neris

Day 150. The Green Bridge.

#GreenBridge

I was talking a litlle about the Green Bridge on Day 21.

In the end of August (2021) new installation on the Green Bridge appeared. 

Its so called Cages by architect Audrius Ambrasas.

From the first moment installation lit up and provoked discussion and caused hatred. 

Reasons:

First, The budget of the installation was 18 500 eur.

Second, the istallation is made from rusty material (oh no, again, one more after Krantinės Arka.)

On 21 September publishing house Lapas organized discussion at NDG about Public Vilnius Spaces.

Participants: architect Audrius Ambrasas, artist Dainius Liškevičius, and historian Zigmas Vaitkus.

Moderator: art manager Laima Kreivytė (smart and intelligent women).

Dainius Liškevičius of the author of the idea of istallation for Petras Cvirka monument. 

Monument should not be dismounted but hidden under the ground and it coould apper from the under the ground only when visistor wishes and pays a fee.

Vilnius municipality has taken decision that Petras Cvirka monument should be dismounted. 

The main idea that why we get rid of all soviet heritage and we dismount or destroy object that reminds us our past, instead of looking for new solutions and implementing new original projets.