Birth of the urban icon of Vilnius

Straipsnis skirtas vienam svarbiausių Vilniaus miesto simbolių – Aukštutinės pilies Gedimino bokšto vaizdiniui XX a. pradžioje. Šis vaizdinys patyrė esminį virsmą: XIX a. Lietuvos dailėje susiformavęs romantinis, „griuvėsių poezijos“ inspiruotas įvaizdis, XX a. pradžioje perėjo iš aukštojo meno į žemąją, masinę kultūrą. Su masinių medijų kultūra XIX a. Europoje atsirado poreikis redukuoti miestų vaizdus į pavienius paminklus, kurie taptų embleminiais miesto ženklais, visiems suprantamomis populiariomis ikonomis. Vilniuje šis reiškinys pasirodė po 1905 m. caro Nikolajaus II manifesto, įgalinusio žodžio ir spaudos laisvę, kai mieste atsirado periodinė iliustruota spauda. Žurnalinėje, knygų grafikoje paplito supaprastintų, schematizuotų formų Gedimino bokšto atvaizdas, nešantis įvairaus lygio semantinę informaciją (nuorodą į konkrečią veiksmo vietą, politines, nacionalines, religines, asmenines, komercines implikacijas ir pan.). Atvaizdas tapo besikartojančia, skirtingose medijose cirkuliuojančia miesto ikona.This article deals with one of the most significant symbols of Vilnius – the Gediminas Tower of the Upper Castle. This study is based on new interdisciplinary approaches toward urban culture and visual culture, and the concept of ‘urban icon’ developed by Philip J. Ethington and Vanessa R. Schwarz in An Atlas of the Urban Icons. The Upper Castle was built on one of the highest hills of Vilnius by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas in the 14th century, but only part of the Castle – the so called Tower of Gediminas – has survived until today. The tower became a favoured subject for art works in the course the 19th century and its image was enhanced by Romanticism and the notion of the ‘poetry of ruins’. At the start of the 20th century this image underwent radical changes, a shift from ‘high art’ to ‘low’ popular culture. The mass mediated visual culture of Europe in the 19th century brought with it a new visual phenomena – ‘urban icons’, in which the variety of monuments and sights of a particular city was reduced to one significant representative structure that was easily identifiable and understandable to the general public. The spread of print-media and of photography, in particular, allowed the images of such urban icons to be widely distributed. Print-media in Lithuanian and Polish – books, newspapers, and journals, appeared quite late in Vilnius due to its contemporary political situation and the tsarist ban of publications in the Latin alphabet. The periodical press in local languages appeared in Vilnius only after lifting of the book ban in 1904 and the general liberalization of the Russian empire ushered in by Tsar Nicolas II’s manifesto in 1905. The visual image of Gediminas Tower became very popular in periodical journals, and it was illustrated with photographs, drawings, and caricatures. This image acquired many different national, ideological, religious, political, and commercial meanings. Schematically interpreted images of the tower appeared also in the artefacts of pop culture – tourist souvenirs, posters, postcards, advertising logos, etc. At the beginning of the 20th century the image of Gediminas Tower became the icon of Vilnius that was most widely circulated across all media