• Go with a guide if you can, since the stories of winged hussars and the cursed maiden's treasure land better told aloud
• Free with the Vilnius Pass, worth knowing if you're stacking several museums into one day
• Gates of Dawn nearby, a short walk away, so the two pair easily in one Old Town morning

The bastion is a 16th-century piece of the old city wall: a tower, a horseshoe-shaped artillery platform, and a tunnel joining them. Inside, the exhibition shows how the city defended itself, from early grenades and mortars to 17th- and 18th-century cannons. Kids can spot the winged hussars and hear the legend of the Basilisk, said to have lived in a cave in the bastion hill.