Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened an exhibition featuring three letters of Grand Duke Gediminas, loaned from Germany, at Vilnius University on Tuesday.
The exhibition, entitled Curriculum Vilnae, “displays a unique historical treasure – an authentic document originating from the times of Gediminas, which contains copies of three letters written by the Lithuanian ruler that were sent from the capital of Lithuania to Europe precisely seven centuries ago, on May 26, 1323,” Nausėda’s office said in a press release.
“Due to wars, occupations, and other hardships, many of our historical documents and cultural heritage treasures were lost or scattered. Not a single original letter sent from Vilnius to Europe by Gediminas has survived,” it quoted the Lithuanian president.
“Therefore, we highly value this very special gift from Germany – the opportunity to admire the original 14th-century parchment preserved in the archives in Berlin, which contains the texts of Gediminas’ letters addressed to contemporaries in Germany,” he said.
In 1323, Grand Duke Gediminas reached out to merchants and craftsmen in German cities, to the Franciscan and Dominican monasteries, and to Christian Europe, inviting people to come and settle in his lands, engage in economic activities, and contribute to the prosperity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
His letter of January 25, 1323, contains the first known mention of Vilnius as a city and the capital of Lithuania.
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