Widespread use of the nickname from the 16th century to this day as a reference to the many Catholic churches and monasteries in Vilnius and overall religious atmosphere in the centre. This nickname was/is used not only by the foreigners but also by the local population. The 19th-century Lithuanian cultural figure Dionizas Poška nicknamed Vilnius "Rome of the North", as, according to him, Vilnius is "the old religious centre, that transformed from a pagan city into the bastion of Christianity". D. Poška, Raštai, Vilnius, 1959, p. 67
This nickname was very popular among the Lithuanian nobility, citizens of Vilnius, and poets, especially during the Baroque period. Many poets of the period, including Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, nicknamed Vilnius "the capital of Palemon" or "the city of Palemon". Živilė Nedzinskaitė, Vilnius XVII–XVIII a. LDK lotyniškojoje poezijoje, Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, Vilnius, 2010, p. 16; Eugenija Ulčinaitė, Motiejus Kazimieras Sarbievijus: Antikos ir krikščionybės sintezė; Vilniaus pasveikinimas, Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, Vilnius, 2001, pp. 47, 59, 61, 63; etc.
