The most notable non-Lithuanian names for the city include Latin: Vilna, Polish: Wilno, Belarusian: Вiльня (Vilnia), German: Wilna, Latvian: Viļņa, Ukrainian: Вільно (Vilno), Yiddish: ווילנע (Vilne).

[33] Under imperial Russian rule, Vilnius became the capital of Vilna Governorate and had a number of cultural revivals during the 19th and early 20th centuries by Jews, Poles, Lithuanians, and Belarusians.

Vilnius's rivers freeze in particularly cold winters, and the lakes surrounding the city are almost always frozen from December to March, and even April, in the most extreme years.

The oldest surviving early Gothic artworks (14th century) are paintings dedicated to churches and liturgy, such as frescoes in the crypts of Vilnius Cathedral and decorated hymnbooks.

[62] Renaissance sculpture appeared during the early 16th century, primarily by the Italian sculptors Bernardinus Zanobi da Gianotti, Giovani Cini, and Giovanni Maria Padovano.

During the Renaissance, portrait tombstones and medals were valued; examples are the marble tombs of Albertas Goštautas (1548) and Paweł Holszański (1555) by Bernardino de Gianotis in Vilnius Cathedral.

Secular painting – representational, imaginative, epitaph portraits, scenes of battles and politically important events in a detailed, realistic style – also spread at this time.

The centre develops international and Lithuanian exhibitions and presents a range of public programs which include lectures, seminars, performances, film and video screenings, and live music.

[84] Mikalojus Daukša translated and published a catechism by Spanish Jesuit theologian Jacobo Ledesma in 1595, the first printed Lithuanian-language book in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

[100] During the 16th century, composers such as Wacław of Szamotuły, Jan Brant, Heinrich Finck, Cyprian Bazylik, Alessandro Pesenti, Luca Marenzio, and Michelagnolo Galilei lived in Vilnius; the city was also home to virtuoso lutist Bálint Bakfark.

[110] Vilnius is the birthplace of singers Mariana Korvelytė – Moravskienė, Paulina Rivoli, Danielius Dolskis, Vytautas Kernagis, Algirdas Kaušpėdas, Andrius Mamontovas, Nomeda Kazlaus, and Asmik Grigorian); composers César Cui, Felix Yaniewicz, Maximilian Steinberg, Vytautas Miškinis, and Onutė Narbutaitė); conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla), and musicians Antoni Radziwiłł, Jascha Heifetz, Clara Rockmore, and Romas Lileikis).

[117] According to the memoirs of architect Bolesław Podczaszyński, published in January 1853 in the Gazeta Warszawska, Lithuanian photography began with the daguerreotyping in the summer of 1839 of the reconstructed Verkiai Palace by François Marcillac (governor of the children of Duke Ludwig Wittgenstein).

In the 14th and 15th centuries, crafts were specialized (especially the production of tools, household items, fabrics, clothing, weapons, and jewelry); workshops were established which trained and defended the interests of craftspeople.

[138] During the late 18th century, almost all men shaved; their hair was short, and they wore open-front blue, green or black tailcoats and waistcoats with white or light-yellow trousers;[139] women's clothing echoed West European styles.

[151][153] The chief city administrator was a Catholic vaitas (a vicegerent of the Grand Duke of Lithuania),[154] most of whom were beginning their careers in the magistracy, and chaired city-council meetings.

[citation needed] The Vinius City Municipal Council [lt], established in 1990,[155] is elected to four-year terms, and candidates are nominated by political parties and committees.

[167] With its large Polish population, the Vilnius District Municipality Council primarily consists of members of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania party.

[178] The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos vyriausiasis administracinis teismas), which adjudicates litigation against public bodies, is in Žygimantų Street.

[180] The Lithuanian Tribunal, the highest appellate court for the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and established by Stephen Báthory in 1581, was in Vilnius until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.

[18][17] Artists such as Matteo Castelli and Pietro Perti) from the present-day Canton of Ticino were preferred by the Grand Duke and local nobility, and designed the Chapel of Saint Casimir.

[199] Vilnius Old Town (Lithuanian: Vilniaus senamiestis), with medieval stone-paved streets, and Užupis have prestigious housing, with apartments featuring views of iconic churches and urban landmarks (particularly Gediminas Tower), enclosed inner courtyards, high ceilings, attics, non-standard layouts and luxurious interiors;[200] Flats in these neighbourhoods may cost millions of euros.

[201] Traffic jams, expensive parking, air pollution, high maintenance costs and limitations on renovation, however, also encourage wealthy Vilnians to buy or build private houses in outlying parts of the city such as Balsiai, Bajorai, Pavilnys, Kalnėnai and Pilaitė or the nearby Vilnius District Municipality.

[202] Valakampiai and Turniškės are prestigious neighborhoods, with private houses on large lots surrounded by pine forests which are easily accessible from the city centre.

[219] City was inhabited by a large number of Italian and Swiss artisans as well and generally all the European nations were presented to an extent (those included Vilnius university professors and students among whom there were French, Spanish, Swedes and even some Croatians as Tomaš Zdelarius, musicians at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania or such military servants as Hungarian Gáspár Bekes).

[237] The supply of new housing in Vilnius and its suburbs has reached post-recession highs, and the stock of unsold apartments in Lithuania's three largest cities has begun to increase since the beginning of 2017.

[243] Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert established the Botanical Garden of Vilnius University in 1781 with over 2,000 plants, and provided the first herbariums, collections of stuffed animals and birds, fossil plants, animal remains, and a collection of minerals to Vilnius University.,[244] The observatory published the Russian Empire's first exact sciences journal, the Journal of Mathematical Sciences (Russian: Вестник математических наук), after the Third Partition of Poland.

The site of Vilnius's largest synagogue, built in the early 1630s, destroyed by Nazi Germany during its occupation of Lithuania and later demolished by Soviet authorities, was found by ground-penetrating radar in June 2015.

[336] The Church Heritage Museum (Lithuanian: Bažnytinio paveldo muziejus) contains city's the oldest and largest collection of liturgical artefacts in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vilnius.

[350] The controversial Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports, built by Soviet authorities on the site of a Jewish graveyard, was scheduled to become the leading convention center in the Baltic states in 2022.

[381] In 1518, doctor and canon Martynas Dušnickis established the first špitolė in Vilnius: Lithuania's first hospital-like institution which treated people unable to care for themselves due to health, age, or poverty.