Jakšto Street () is a short street in the central part of Vilnius, named after the Lithuanian Catholic theologist and philosopher Adomas Jakštas. It is some 350 metres long and leads from the principal Gediminas Avenue towards the Neris river, sloping by some 7 metres towards the north. The street is flanked by buildings built between the 1890s and the 2000s. Throughout its history and according to political preferences of Vilnius authorities, it was named Старый Переулок (Old Backyard), Улица Херсонская (Kherson Street), Krähenstraße (Crow Street), ulica Dąbrowskiego (Dąbrowski Street), Dambrausko-Jakšto gatvė (Dambrauskas-Jakštas Street), Komunarų gatvė (Communards Street) and Jakšto gatvė (Jakštas Street).
Two houses which merit attention are the historicist building designed by in the 1890s and the functionalist building by Jerzy Sołtan, constructed in the 1930s. The street featured prominently in the history of Vilnius on January 1, 1919, when it became a battleground between the local workers' soviet and the local Polish militia. Over time the street hosted some locally important institutions: the Russian high school Гимназiя Прозоробой (early 20th century), the radical left-wing Vilnius Soviet of Workers Deputies (1918–1919), the Lithuanian high school Vytauto Didžiojo Gimnazija (1931–1944), and the key Russian-language Lithuanian SSR daily Sovetskaya Litva (1949–1987). However, for city dwellers of some 5 generations the street has been rather associated with performance hall, hosting various types of shows; it was named "Apollo" (Russian rule), "Słońce" (Polish rule), "Pionierius" (Soviet rule) and "Vaidilos" (Lithuanian rule).
Лукишки / Łukiszki / Lukiškės
Until the late 19th century the Vilnius layout was oriented along the north–south axis; the city backbone was formed by a sequence of streets (now known as Pilies Street, Didžioji Street, ) running from the cathedral to the О́страя бра́ма gate. Living memory of the city walls, demolished in the early 19th century, marked the inner-city; it was surrounded by mostly wooden suburbs. On the north-west the city was bordered by some 10-hectare rural area named (pol. Łukiszki), which hosted few isolated hamlets.named Łukiszki Tatarskie, Łukiszki Radziwiłłowskie (Jezuickie), Łukiszki Gościkowskie, see a map from the 18th century, available here Earlier drawings show in the area now occupied by the Jakšto street the presence of mounds, named Gura Czartowa (Devil's Hill) and Gura Gliniana (Clay Hill),see e.g. a map, available here but there is no trace of them on later maps. A map from 1808 marks "Zaułek Wroni" (Crow Pathway) in what is now the Jakšto Street.see the Karol Gurtner map, available here In the mid-19th century the landmark of the neighbourhood was a religious compound, which consisted of the church of St. Jacob and St. Philip, the Dominican monastery and the hospital for the poor.Andrzej Pukszto, Między stołecznością a partykularyzmem: wielonarodowościowe społeczeństwo Wilna w latach 1915-1920, Toruń 2006, ISBN 9788388089589, p. 65 It stood among fields, meadows and some low wooden houses, crossed by few country roads. A map from the 1840s shows what is now the Jakšto Street as one of these nameless roads,a map from 1866 barely even shows the place as a road; it seems to be a path, leading among fields and trees, see here leading among fields and orchards towards few buildings, located on the bank of the Neris river.see a map from the 1840s, available here, from the 1850s, available here, or from the 1870s, available here
Development plans
The rural area north-west of Vilnius started to undergo major change in the second half of the 19th century. A country road leading from the city westwards already in the 1830s was marked as a future major communications route, though for decades it spelled no practical change. In the 1860s it was named Георгиевский проспект (St. George Avenue), in the years to come to become a major city alley. A field next to the Lukiškės Prison was marked as the key Vilnius marketplace; some 15 minute walk from the cathedral, it soon became busy with hundreds of farmers selling straight from their horsecarts and city dwellers walking from the old town to make purchases. A new municipal development plan, adopted in 1875, set the area as the focus of further expansion.Małgorzata Dolistowska, ‘Miłe miasto’ między tradycją a awangardą. Architektura Wilna w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym – zarys problematyki, [in:] Wojciech Walczak, Karol Łopatecki (eds.), Stan badań nad wielokulturowym dziedzictwem dawnej Rzeczpospolitej, vol. VIII, Białystok 2017, p. 89 In the 1880s first large, multi-storey residential buildings started to appear along the St. George Avenue, first close to the cathedral, and then gradually further west. However, photos from 1866 to 1886 show the neighbourhood of St. Jacob and Philip church, including the later Jakšto Street area, as cultivated fields crossed by some country roads; here and there they were dotted with trees or what looks like single manors, stables, and warehouses.see photos from the 1860s, e.g. here or slightly later here
Старый Переулок
In the 1890s rural perpendicular roads, running between the St. George Avenue and the Neris river, gradually began to lose their rural character. A map from the 1890s for the first time assigned a name to what later became the Jakšto Street; it is marked as Старый Переулок (Old Backstreet).see a map from the 1890s, available here However, a map issued in Polish named it Zaułek Nadbrzeżny (Riverbank Backstreet). The western side of the street was marked in green (rural), the eastern one in red (urban), even though it hosted merely few shabby wooden constructions.see a map from the 1890s, available here In the late 1890s the place attracted attention of , official architect of the Vilnius Orthodox eparchy and already the author of a few monumental buildings in the city. In 1896 his wife Sofia purchased two neighbouring plots.Viktorija Karsokaitė, Istorinis pastatas sostinės A.Jakšto gatvėje sulauks pokyčių: planuojamas viešbutis, [in:] 15min service, 25.04.2020 Prozorov designed a group of 3 adjacent 2-floor buildings, to be located there; the first one was completed in 1897–1898. The other two were constructed shortly afterwards, the entire complex based on an H-like layout.Prozorov designed the building and lived there, in an apartment of 14 rooms. The rest was rented as other apartments, shops and a railwaymen club, Apie mus. Pastato istorija, [in:] Vaidilos Teatras website Though Prozorov later became an expert in reinforced concrete, the buildings were erected in traditional technology, with bricks. Designed in eclectic historicist style, they became one of the largest and most prestigious new sites in Vilnius of the time.Karsokaitė 2020
Kherson street
In unclear circumstances some time at the turn of the centuries the street was renamed; on the Russian map from 1904 it no longer appears as Старый Переулок, but is marked as Улица Херсонская (Kherson Street).see a map from 1904, available here Also on the Polish-language map from 1907 the lane is marked similarly, as Ulica Chersońska.see a map from 1907, available here At the time the quarter was half-urban; a photo from 1903 shows elegant long-facade multi-storey residential buildings facing what appears to be fields or meadows. However, during the following decade the street became a typical urban lane. Large, 2-floor or 3-floor tenements flanked long sections of the street, while cobble stone surface, pavements and gas lights completed the picture.Karsokaitė 2020 The street became sort of a cultural landmark. The building at the corner of Херсонская and Георгиевский became home to a high school for girls, called Гимназiя Прозоровой (Prozorova Gymnasium).it was the second largest high school for girls, with 611 students registered in 1912, Stefania Walasek, Edukacja w społeczeństwie wielokulturowym na przykłazie zaboru rosyjskiego na przełomie XIX i XX wieku, [in:] Prace Naukowe. Pedagogika 12 (2003), p. 55. A number of fairly well-known women completed the curriculum there, e.g. Eugenia Kobylińska-Maślińska (poet, writer), (writer), Janina Fieldorf (wife to Emil Fieldorf, herself also an activist) The central hall in the Prozorov building (in 1912 sold to a certain Bogdan Ratyński) initially hosted an exposition pavilion, but later formed part of the "Apollo" hall,Waldemar Wołkanowski, Restauracje międzywojennego Wilna. Ludzie, miejsca, historie (1), [in:] serwis Wilnoteka 18.02.2022 used for theatrical performances, variétés and as a cinema.the exposition pavilion was moved from the Bernardine Garden, later dismantled and the hall times used as a scene for various types of performances, Walles, Достопримечательности и посещаемые места thread [in:] О Вильнюсе service 22.02.2008 The complex hosted also head office of , a local railway company, apart from a club and canteen of the railwaymen trade union. Numerous shops were located at ground floor.Karsokaitė 2020
Krähenstraße
In September 1915 Vilnius was seized by the German army. Many Russian institutions ceased to operate, including the Prozorova Gymnasium. Instead, Polish institutions mushroomed. One of them was a high school for girls, set up by Anna Czarnowska; it took over the former Prozorova's premises, later replaced by the Nazaretan order high school.according to others it was rather a high school for girls, set up by Stowarzyszenie Nauczycielstwa Polskiego in 1915, which resided in the former Prozorova’s Gymnasium in 1918/1919, Joanna Falkowska, Stefania Walasek, Szkoły Stowarzyszenia Nauczycielstwa Polskiego w Wilnie (1896-1921), [in:] BHW 41 (2019), p. 40 Though initially the street retained the name of Khersonstraße,see a German 1915 map, available here in 1916 it was renamed to Krähenstraße (Crow Street);see a German 1916 map, available here. None of the sources consulted clarifies why the street was named after crows, and whether it was a German invention or accommodation of some informally-used name the name appeared also in Lithuanian (Varnių gatvė)"Buvo taip pat apsuptas darbininkų klubas prie Varnių gatvės 5", Mykolas Biržiška, Dėl mūsų sostinės, London 1960, p. 55 and Polish (ulica Wronia)."Na grupę agentów natknął się na ul. Wroniej", Wincenty Jastrzębski, Wspomnienia, Warszawa 1966, p. 241 In 1918, following growing social unrest and gradual decomposition of German rule, the Prozorov building became a hub of workers’ organisations. The place was headquarters of the Vilnius Soviet of Workers Deputies, a far-left body which claimed authority over Vilnius; few meters away resided the competitive Polish body, Komitet Polski.Do ludności polskiej, [in:] Dziennik Wileński 21.11.1918 The Germans tolerated the soviet, but once their troops started to abandon the city during very last days of 1918, local Polish militia closed in.Lech Wyszczelski, Wilno 1919-1920, Warszawa 2008, ISBN 9788311112490, p. 47 Ironically dubbed “Crow Nest” by the Poles, the building was subject to intense half-a-day shootout and on January 1, 1919, it was seized by the militia.Michał Wołłejko, Droga do zwycięstwa zaczęła się w Wilnie, [in:] Wilnoteka service 08.11.2012 However, 4 days later Vilnius fell to advancing Bolshevik army.Альгирдас Вилейкис, Вильнюс - столица советской Литвы, Вильнюс 1988, ISBN 9785417000409, p. 28
Ulica Dąbrowskiego