Vilnius | the largest city and the capital of Lithuania

According to its multi-ethnic and multicultural character, the city is known by different names. European maps and descriptions used the name Vilna or Vilna from the 14th to the 20th century. The oldest attested forms from the 14th century read vor die Wilne, ante Vilnam or similar. In Lithuanian it is called Vilnius, and this name - first attested around 1600 - is gradually gaining acceptance in other languages in the present.

The name of the town is derived from that of the Vilnia river (often diminutive Vilnelė), which flows into the Neris not far from the historical centre of the town on Gediminas Hill. The Lithuanian words vilnìs and vilnelė mean "wave" and "small wave" respectively. Moreover, an alternative name of the Neris is *Velija, attested c. 1230 as Велья. The name of the smaller tributary was originally a diminutive of this name.

The asteroid of the inner main belt (3072) Vilnius is named after the city.

In addition to its current function, Vilnius also had a historical one, with a chequered history as a capital. From 1569 to 1795 it was the capital of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy in the Polish-Lithuanian noble Republic of Abiejų Tautų Respublika (Poland-Lithuania or Republic of Two Nations).

Due to the Third Partition of Poland and Lithuania, respectively, both lost their independence completely and Vilnius lost its former capital function, which the city, apart from an interruption from 1918 to 1922, only regained in 1945. With the annexation into the Russian Tsarist Empire at the time of the partition, Vilnius became the headquarters of the Administrative 1795 to 1830 of the Lietuvos Generalgubernatorija (Lithuanian General Government) and then from 1830 until its dissolution in 1912 of the Vilniaus Generalgubernatorija (Vilnius General Government). Within the two general governorates, the city also functioned as the central administrative seat of the respective gubernia, whose name or geographical location changed several times, in which Vilnius was located, e.g. the Vilniaus gubernija (Vilnius gubernia/governance).

After Lithuania regained its independence (see ↑ Independence since 1918), Vilnius became the capital of the first Lietuvos TSR (Lithuanian SSR) in 1918-1919, of the Lietuvos-Baltarusijos TSR (Lithuanian-Belarusian SSR) in 1919, and of the state of Litwa Środkowa/Vidurinė Lietuva (Central Lithuania) in 1920-1922.

From 1922 to 1945, Vilnius (apart from 1940 to 1941) was not a capital of a Lithuanian state, but again an administrative seat at the provincial level, this time in Poland or under German occupation. In detail, the city was the capital of the voivodeship of the same name in the II Rzeczpospolita (Second Polish Republic) from 1922 to 1939, the capital of the second Lietuvos TSR (Lithuanian SSR) from 1940 to 1941, the capital of Vilnius Land in the Reichskommissariat Ostland from 1941 to 1945, and after 1945 again the capital of the re-established Lietuvos TSR until 1990.