Bernardine Garden

The Bernardine Garden, formerly called Sereikiškės Park, lies between Gediminas Castle Tower, the Vilnelė river and the Bernardine Monastery. A special part of the park is the botanical display commemorating the Vilnius University Botanical Garden, which stood here in the 18th century and was one of the largest gardens in Eastern Europe. Next to the park entrance on the Šv. Brunono Street side grows the oldest oak in Vilnius, as much as 400 years old, and on the left bank of the Vilnia, near the Folk Culture Centre, gushes the Minute Spring, well known to locals, which can be reached by steps with handrails. The history of the Bernardine Garden goes back to the 15th century, when the Bernardine monks invited to Vilnius built the complex of St Anne's, St Francis's and the Bernardine churches and the monastery, and cultivated the boggy, spring-fed land, laying out gardens with ponds, canals and fertile vegetable plots. Later an apiary hummed here and an orangery stood here. The rest of the Vilnia bend was taken up by the castle's farmyard, later called the Sereikiškės suburb, with dams, mills and workshops. In 2013, after a reconstruction of the park that lasted more than a year, an authentic 19th-century setting was recreated here, reproducing the park design style of the late 19th century: a system of open and enclosed spaces with green lawns was created, along with a central square designed by the artist Alexander Strauss, a rose garden and a 20th-century rock garden with a pond. A musical, illuminated fountain was installed in the park's main rose garden, the range of botanical garden plants was supplemented by a display of aquatic plants in a small pool, and there are plans to renew the rock garden here too. At that time the park also got back its old name – the Bernardine Garden. The course of the Vilnia changed several times in this area. The old riverbed ran where the central avenue and gate of the park are today, along present-day Barboros Radvilaitės Street, dividing today's park in two. Only in the second half of the 19th century was the old riverbed finally filled in.