The exhibition, curated by Marina Filipović, presents a small part of historical photographs of the city of Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital that celebrated its 700th birthday in January 2023. The oldest historical source in which the name of Vilnius is mentioned is a letter sent by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas to Western Europe on 25 January 1323.
The earliest and most realistic pictures of the city were created in the second half of the 19th century, when one of the most important technical inventions of the century - photography - appeared in Vilnius. Around 1860, the first photography studio was opened in the city, and its founders, photographers Abdon Korzon and Albert Swieykowski, began photographing Vilnius.
Scenes of the city were also recorded by foreign photographers - Wilhelm Zacharczyk, Antal Rohrbach and Konrad Brandel, authors of the earliest photo albums of Vilnius.
However, the first photographer who devotedly documented old Vilnius was Józef Czechowicz (1818 – 1888), known as the author of artistic panoramas, unique architectural monuments, important scenes from city life and striking landscapes of the surrounding area. The city was later photographed by Stanisław Filibert Fleury (1858 – 1915), whose photographs, taken at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, immortalised not only historical and architectural monuments, but also scenes from the city's everyday life, the press release said.
The largest collection of artistic photographs was collected by photographer Jan Bułhak (1876-1950), an advocate and promoter of artistic photography who took thousands of interesting and valuable photographs of the city from 1910 to 1944. He settled in Vilnius before World War I, and the largest part of his legacy consists of artistic photographs of Vilnius architecture. They record scenes from the streets of the old city centre, details of the architecture of churches and their interiors, monasteries, palaces, residential and other buildings.
The exhibition "The city of Vilnius in old photographs" is open in the "Rupe" granary until 15 September, the Dubrovnik museums said.