ENIn a short talk delivered as part of the celebrations organised in Vilnius on 24 January 2018 on the occasion of the city‘s official 695th ‘birthday’ the author outlines the connection between the city and the ‘Letters of Gediminas’ (1323). He explains broadly what these texts are and how they have functioned in public and academic life over the past seven centuries, noting their growing importance in modern political discourse and so-called ‘historical memory’.