Lithuania celebrates millennium of its name

Jul 6, 2009, 16:21 GMT

Vilnius - The Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, became the focus for a day of national celebration on Monday with a series of events marking one thousand years since the first mention of the country appeared in history books.

Events got under way with the hoisting of the yellow, green and red-banded national flag in central Vilnius and a mass at Vilnius Cathedral.

Guests included Presidents Lech Kaczynski of Poland and Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine, both of whose territories were at one time included in a Polish-Lithuanian empire that stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Representatives of various European royal families were among the first guests to be admitted to a royal palace that has been rebuilt as part of the millennial celebrations, even though the project is only about two-thirds complete.

Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, who is due to step down later this week, said the royal palace had been re-erected 'as an icon of our national revival and as a symbol of strong and powerful Lithuania that lived as an equal among equals in the Europe of that age.'

Adamkus also drew parallels between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the European Union and said Lithuanians' strength had prevented them from becoming extinct like the Baltic Prussians.

In the evening, Adamkus will host a gala reception in the courtyard of his presidential palace on the other side of Vilnius' Old Town.

Events are being broadcast live on a large screen in the Cathedral Square as well as on Lithuanian television stations.

The Chronicles of Quedlinburg in Germany, record the murder of St Bruno and 18 of his colleagues 'on the Russian-Lithuanian border' in 1009. His martyrdom is the first mention of Lithuania in a written text.