While walking around Vilnius, one cannot but notice the Christian monasteries that are integral to the city’s landscape. Monastic communities have played an immanent role in the city's existence, in part, forming the backbone of its very identity. The monks who settled here and the nuns, who followed soon after, never abandoned Vilnius. As historical trends ebbed and flowed, some more favourable to the monastic communities than others, and as the initial grand dukes, kings, governors, military leaders, first secretaries, presidents, burgomasters, and mayors were replaced by new ones, the monks and the nuns always remained. Not only were they unintimidated by wars, revolutions, and uprisings, they even resisted repression and occupation. Even when they became unnoticeable, the brothers and sisters of the now dispersed communities would not renounce the landscape of their Heavenly City, which was something they loved and cared for, and for which they remained faithful to their calling.