Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

Vilnius, Lithuania

The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania was built originally in the 15th century for the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Royal Palace in the Lower Castle evolved over the years and prospered during the 16th and mid-17th centuries. For four centuries the palace was the political, administrative and cultural center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Soon after the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was incorporated into Tsarist Russia, Tsarist officials ordered the demolition of the remaining sections of the Royal Palace. The Palace was almost completely demolished in 1801, the bricks and stones were sold, and the site was bowered. Only a small portion of the walls up to the second floor survived, that were sold to a Jewish merchant Abraham Schlossberg around 1800 who incorporated them into his residential house. After the 1831 uprising, the czarist government expelled Schlossberg and took over the building as it was building a fortress beside it. Before the Second World War it was the office of the Lithuanian Army, during the World War II it was the office of the German Army, and after World War II it was used by Soviet security structures and later transformed into the Palace of Pioneers. Fragments of Schlossberg's house have become part of the Eastern Wing of the restored Royal Palace.

A new palace has been under construction since 2002 on the site of the original building. The Royal Palace was officially opened during the celebration of the millennium of the name of Lithuania in 2009.

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Address

Šventaragio gatvė 2, Vilnius, Lithuania
See all sites in Vilnius

Details

Founded: 19th century
Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Lithuania

More Information

www.vilnius-tourism.lt
www.visitlithuania.net
www.valdovurumai.lt
en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.6/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Vilnius Cathedral (0,1 km)
St. John's Church (0,4 km)
Gediminas' Tower (0,1 km)
Vilnius University (0,3 km)
National Museum of Lithuania (0,2 km)
Vilnius Town Hall (0,9 km)
St. Anne's Church (0,4 km)
St. Casimir's Church (0,9 km)
Presidential Palace (0,4 km)


Trakai Island Castle (23,2 km)
Trakai Peninsula Castle (23,1 km)
St. Mary's Church (23,3 km)
Norviliskes Castle (59,3 km)
Medininkai Castle (28,4 km)
Kernave (35,7 km)
Senieji Trakai Castle (21,6 km)
Karmazinai Mound (27,3 km)
Dubingiai Castle Ruins (42,7 km)

User Reviews

Zaki Arshad (11 months ago)
A great historic place to visit, really nice atmosphere inside. There is alot information about the history of Lithuania and monoments which tells the story of great Kings and Queens. The best part translation of every information in English is also provided.
Greta Zabulyte (13 months ago)
For Vilnius, the Palace was alright, tidy and newly built and refurbished. Lots of text to read though. The section regarding the musical instruments had no instruments at all. We loved the artillery and weaponry section - it could have been improved by adding a sentence to each item just to give more context. The tower and the view made our visit. There was some live singing rehearsal which was interesting Even though we enjoyed the overall experience, the first person we met at the tickets office, a young woman was so rude. Didn't greet us (we had foreigners with us), didn't tell us about the leaflets and audio guides. When asked about the tours and guides, she said none were available and I know that wasn't true. To sum up, it's a place with lots of potential, security guards were nice as well as ladies upstairs, but the reception girl wasn't really welcoming.
felix pettifer (13 months ago)
very well done museum, easy to spend a long time learning about Lithuanian history. Would recommend to allow at least 2.5 hours for a visit, but could easily spend half a day there
Steven Beekmans (14 months ago)
Amazing restored palace. The underground route is very nice. It was just 3.50 when we visited, so definitely great value for money. It’s worth it to take the 1 euro audio tour, since there is a lot of reading. The VR experience of the history of the palace was the best part of my visit.
Lukes (14 months ago)
Here we're talking about a museum of World class! I had to go back the next day because of all the information on Lithuanian history. Definitely worth a visit or two for history buffs. The whole palace is built from scratch since the old was destroyed a long time ago, but the replica building is a marvelous sight, they have furnished the rooms with furniture and stuff so we can see how it could have been. The cellar is filled with ruins old old structures. The excavation of the site is very well documented.
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Wawel Hill – a Jurassic limestone rock, a dominant feature in the landscape of Kraków, have provided a safe haven for people who have settled here since the Paleolithic Age. It is supposed that the Slav people started living on Wawel hill as early as the 7th century. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight. Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power.In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.

At that time Wawel became one of the main Polish centres of Christianity. The first early Romanesque and Romanesque sacral buildings were raised here, including a stone cathedral that was erected after the bishopric of Kraków was established in the year 1000.

During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State. Casimir’s son, Boleslas the Bold (1058-1079) began the construction of a second Romanesque cathedral, which was finished by Boleslas the Wrymouth (1102-1138). In his last will of 1138, this prince divided Poland into districts, and provided that Kraków was to be the residence of the senior prince. In 1291 the city of Kraków along with Wawel Hill temporarily fell under the Czech rule, and Wenceslas II from the Premysl dynasty was crowned King of Poland in Wawel cathedral.

In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill. Around that time, at the initiative of Ladislas the Short, the construction of the third Gothic cathedral began, the castle was expanded and the old wooden and earthen fortifications were replaced by brick ones. The tomb of Ladislas the Short in the cathedral started a royal necropolis of Polish kings in Krakow.The last descendant of the Piast dynasty, Casimir the Great (1333-1370) brought Wawel to a state of unprecedented splendour. In 1364 the expanded gothic castle witnessed the marriage of Casimir’s granddaughter Elizabeth to Charles IV accompanied by a famous convention of kings and princes, subsequently entertained by a rich burgher Wierzynek. The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel. The royal court employed local and western European artists and also Rus painters. During the reign of Casimir Jagiellon (1447-1492) the silhouette of the hill was enriched by three high brick towers: the Thieves’ Tower, the Sandomierz Tower and the Senatorial Tower. The first humanists in Poland and tutors to the king’s sons: historian Jan Długosz and an Italian by the name Filippo Buonacorsi (also known as Callimachus) worked there at that time.

The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Sigismund’s patronage also left an indelible impression in the cathedral, where a family chapel was erected, known today as Sigismund’s Chapel - the work of Bartolomeo of Berrecci Florence, and through various foundations, one of which was that of a large bell, called the Sigismund to commemorate the king. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza. Alongside Italian artists, German architects, wood workers, painters and metal smiths worked for the king. The last descendant of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572), enriched the castle’s interiors with a magnificent collection of tapestries woven in Brussels. In the “Golden Age” of Polish culture Wawel became one of the main centres of humanism in Europe.

The reign of Sigismund III Waza (1587-1632) also made a strong impression on the history of Wawel. After a fire in the castle in 1595 the king rebuilt the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style. The relocation of the royal court to Warsaw was the cause of a slow but nevertheless steady deterioration in the castle’s condition. The monarchs visited Kraków only occasionally. Restoration of the castle was undertaken during the reign of John III Sobieski, the Wettins and Stanislas Augustus to counteract neglect.

After Poland had lost its independence in 1795, the troops of partitioning nations, Russia, Prussia and Austria, subsequently occupied Wawel which finally passed into the hands of the Austrians. The new owners converted the castle and some of the secular buildings into a military hospital, and demolished some others, including churches. After the period of the Free City of Kraków (1815-1846) Wawel was once more annexed by Austria and turned into a citadel dominating the city. By the resolution passed by the Seym of Galicia in 1880, the castle was presented as a residence to the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I. The Austrian troops left the hill between 1905-1911. At the turn of the 20th century a thorough restoration of the cathedral was conducted, and shortly afterwards a process of restoration of the royal castle began which lasted several decades.

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