In the late Middle Ages, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest state in Europe in terms of area. Lithuania pushed the Mongol Empire of the Golden Horde eastwards and, at the beginning of the 15th century, was on the verge of taking over Moscow as well. Lithuania is hardly present in Western history. The lecture series brings leading historians from Lithuania to Vienna to present the fundamental developments of Lithuania in the context of European and Eurasian history. Like Austria, Lithuania is now one of the smaller states in Europe, and like Austria, it looks back on its own imperial tradition. Since Lithuania ruled over the whole of Belarus and large parts of Ukraine and what is now western Russia, Lithuanian history is also the history of a vast area characterised by Orthodoxy and Slavic languages. The lecture series opens up little-known dimensions of European and Western Eurasian history.
The opening lecture will be given on Thursday, 9 October 2025, 6.30 pm, by medievalist Rimvydas Petrauskas, Rector of Vilnius University.
Introductory remarks will be given by the President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Ambassador.
Opening Lecture
„Heiden und Christen: das Großfürstentum Litauen
im Europa des Spätmittelalters“
by Rimvydas Petrauskas, rector of th university of Vilnius
Introductory remarks will be given by the President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Ambassador.
Date: Thursday, 9 October 2025, 6.30 pm
Venue: Hörsaal 32 im Hauptgebäude der Universität Wien, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Stiege 9, 1. Stock
