Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

The Palace of the Grand Dukes used to stand at the edge of the city and once was a part of the complex of Vilnius castles. Now that the city plan has changed considerably, the Palace of the Grand Dukes is being brought back to life in the centre of the city – the Old Town, at the side of Vilnius Cathedral. The earliest view of the Lower Castle of Vilnius is presented in the city plan by George Braun and Frans Hogenberg (printed in Köln, in 1581). The residential palace is represented from the north part and though the general plan is not exact, single buildings were drawn from nature. Vilnius was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the beginning of the 14th century; however, detailed data about the Palace is available neither from the 14th nor the 15th century. It is thought that Grand Duke of Lithuania Aleksander (1492-1506) began to build the residential palace in the area of the Lower Castle in the style of late Gothic at the end of the 15th century. Until 1530 Sigismund the Old (1506-1544) rebuilt it in the Renaissance style. It was Sigismund II Augustus (1544-1572) who elaborated the Palace considerably. Vilnius fire of 1610 damaged the Palace greatly. Architect from the Netherlands Peter Nonhart rebuilt it.

In the cause of time the Palace of the Grand Dukes changed its style – late Gothic, Renaissance, mannerism... The history of the building still conceals a lot of secrets about when and how, and in what style the Palace was rebuilt, repaired and mended. Iconographic sources, though very scarce indeed, left at least an approximate image of the Palace. However, there is no data about the inside installations and the interior. Vaulted ceilings in the halls of the ground and first floors, as in the entire building, are being installed by means of the 21st century technologies. They are formed from a metal net, plastered and fixed (“hung”) on concrete ceilings. It is expected that when new sources about the inside installations of the Palace are found, the vaults would be possible to change.

Artists most often represented the south facade of the Palace. Most of the views were created after the Palace had already been destroyed, and were either copies of the earlier works or the result of the drawers’ fantasy. The only reliable iconographic sources that help recreate this facade of the Palace are three sepias by Franciszek Smuglewicz (1745-1807) and one picture painted by an unknown artist of the 18th century. These views were drawn before the Palace had been demolished.

Iconographic sources about other facades of the Palace being reconstructed are not plentiful. The only informative views of the north part of the Palace of the Grand Dukes are also created by Franciszek Smuglewicz. There are only two drawings available, which represent this part of the Palace: from the northwest and from the northeast.

The view of the Palace of the Grand Dukes by Juozapas Kamarauskas (1874-1946) was created under the influence of romanticism. Created on the basis of copies of the drawing made by the architect Pietro Rossio (worked in Lithuania between 1787 and 1811) this picture represents the Palace in its heyday. This is not crumbling ruins but a majestic residence of the Rulers, which is supplemented with the Upper Castle still standing on the hill. Today the romanticised view of the Palace has become the image and the icon of reconstructing the Palace of the Grand Dukes.

The architects offered different visions of the reconstruction of the Palace of the Grand Dukes to the first contest in 1994. They proposed covering authentic brick walls with glass or building an amphitheatre in the inner courtyard of the Palace and others. The design that was chosen for the reconstruction (group of designers by architect Rimas Grigas) proposed to make use of the surviving iconographic sources to the maximum. The south facade is the part of the Palace that has been based on the soundest iconographic arguments, which has been recreated on the basis of the views represented in Franciszek Smuglewicz drawings.

The area of the Lower Castle of Vilnius was enclosed by the oldest defensive brick wall with gates and towers, which was mentioned in written sources as far back as 1365, 1414 and 1512. Archaeologists have discovered fragments of the former defensive wall, towers and gates, which, while reconstructing the square, were marked by red stone and today every passer-by can see them. Perhaps the oldest surviving building of the Lower Castle – the tower of the defensive wall – was later used for the Cathedral belfry (today it is seen in the bottom part of the belfry).

The Castle Church that once stood in the territory of the Lower Castle was one of the oldest brick temples in Lithuania. Vilnius Cathedral, which was rebuilt many times in the course of time and which has acquired its current Neo-Classical style due to the architect Laurynas Gucevičius between 1782 and 1792, between 1799 and 1801, has been the main in the Cathedral Square for a long time. The baroque Chapel of St Casimir in the Cathedral is the main adornment of the square and is visible from all sides. The building of the Palace of the Grand Dukes erected nearby has obviously changed the space of the square and has created a new architectural ensemble that did not function in this form earlier.

Though traces of settlement dating back to the middle of the 2nd century are still discovered in the place where the Lower Castle of Vilnius was built, this territory, first and foremost, is associated with the history of the Lithuanian State and medieval archaeological investigations. The Lower Castle of Vilnius was started to be investigated much earlier than the idea of reconstructing the Palace of the Grand Dukes emerged. Investigations into the medieval wooden buildings carried out almost five decades ago, have been recorded in the photographs by one of the main researchers of the Lower Castle – the archaeologist Adolfas Tautavičius. Findings of wooden artefacts – household utensils and work implements – are valuable and rarely surviving.

Having investigated plenty of archaeological findings of the Lower Castle of Vilnius, the interiors of the Palace of different periods has been reconstructed. The tiles were square or of diamond shape, their relief pictures represented Biblical or fantastic scenes, geometrical ornaments. The new floor of the Palace of the Grand Dukes is laid following the example of the old tiles. One of the reconstructed Biblical motifs is a whale swallowing Prophet John.

Glass dishes for the ruler’s table were brought in the 14th century. The first local glass workshop was established as late as 1547 on the initiative of Sigismund Augustus. Though very few glass dishes have been found in the Lower Castle of Vilnius and only scarce fragments thereof have survived, it can be stated that they were of a very high standard of craftsmanship. For example, fragments of the vessel of violet glass of the 14th-15th century still retain traces of gilding, and the spout of a jug made of transparent thin glass of the 15th-16th century is analogous to the articles manufactured at glass workshops in Venice. The most abundant group of archaeological findings is household ceramics; however, coloured and glazed dishes are a rarity. The first imported glazed dishes appeared in the Lower Castle of Vilnius in the 14th century – this glazed keg with a spout is one of the earliest imported ceramic articles.

The frame of a mirror box is one of especially rare archaeological findings. The first personal mirrors appeared in the Lower Castle of Vilnius in 14th-15th centuries. The mirror represented in the 15th century painting “Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Heavenly Salvation”” is analogous to those found in the Lower Castle of Vilnius, and helped the archaeologists to determine the right purpose of these findings. The abundance of the remains of footwear also demonstrates European fashions. For example, fashion of these Renaissance shoes on a platform appeared in Venice. The investigations testify to the fact that there were also jewellery workshops in the Lower Castle of Vilnius – such decorations as rings, bracelets, necklaces, chains, brooches, and earrings were used. This gold ring with a red precious stone is one of the most impressive decorations. Barbara Radziwiłł, a wife of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Sigismund Augustus, is represented in all portraits, as in this portrait of the 16th century, richly adorned with rings and necklaces.

Stoves made of coloured glazed tiles represent the Renaissance interior of the Palace of the Grand Dukes best. Stoves of several storeys the tiles of which represent different motifs beginning with ornaments of plants and ending with fantastic fairy-tales and family coat of arms seemed especially impressive. A rich collection amassed during the investigations enabled the view of the former stoves to be reconstructed, thus they will be again seen in the reconstructed Palace. The plot of a fantastic fairy tale about hares-hunters and tiles with ornaments of plants, the coat of arms of the Sforza family and fantastic, as well as mythological heroes decorate this stove. Specialists of the Castle Research Centre Lietuvos pilys carried out the reconstruction.

Authentic brick walls of the Palace of the Grand Dukes attributed to the Gothic and renaissance epochs, were best preserved in the house of the merchant Abraham Schosberg. Heated discussions broke out among specialists of heritage conservation and in society concerning the fate of this building – to preserve it or to “sacrifice” it for the sake of the new Palace. Finally the new palace “swallowed” the building built of the 19th century; one is able to see its fragments outside and inside the palace. Stone details of the exterior, e.g. window edgings, have been found in the territory of the Lower Castle of Vilnius. According to these findings the new windows with fragments of authentic edgings have been made.