Ment of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in the Vilnius Lower

Thes de TrucTion of The Palace and iTs demise The most devastating blow to the develop- of the so-called House of Abraham Schloss- ment of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of berg. During the late 19th–early 20th centu- Lithuania in the Vilnius Lower Castle came ry, as part of major reconstruction work, the as a result of Lithuania’s and Poland’s unsuc- exteriors and interiors of this Classical build- cessful wars with Muscovy and Sweden in ing were fundamentally altered beyond rec- the mid-17th century. In 1655 Vilnius was ognition. The tsarist Russian administration occupied by the army of the tsar of Muscovy consciously destroyed all manner of symbols which was joined by Cossacks who beseiged relating to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as the capital’s castles until 1661. During this well as any visible reminders of its historical time, the palace suffered severe damage and statehood and development. In 1831, when was looted, and the treasures kept within Lithuanians rebelled against the Russian gov- were transported to Russia. ernment, tsarist officials took additional steps In the second half of the 17th–18th centu- to destroy the ruins of the palace and even at- ries, representatives of the Lithuanian politi- tempted to demolish the foundations of the cal nation on many occasions raised the mat- palace. Authorities agreed to establish on the ter of the palace as a state symbol, the neces- hill, where the castle was situated, a fort and sity of renovation work, and the common to dig a trench around it. The entire Vilnius ruler of Poland and Lithuania’s (the Polish- castles territory was under the jurisdiction of Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania from the southeast, Marcin Knackfuss, ca 1787, Czart. Lithuanian Commonwealth’s) obligatory res- the Russian military engineering board until idence in Vilnius every three years. Howev- 1884. With the destruction of the fort, the ter- er, the state treasury’s dismal condition and ritory was levelled and a park was established objective domestic and international compli- where the palace once stood. cations determined that from the mid-17th Regardless of the tsarist administration’s ef- century, the palace no longer functioned as forts, the palace of the grand dukes of Lithua- a residence of the grand dukes of Lithuania. nia remained an important symbol of the The divisions of the Polish-Lithuanian Com- early Lithuanian state, complete with its own monwealth and the incorporation of the ter- rulers and their own representational resi- ritories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithua- dence. Evidence of this are the numerous il- nia into the Russian Empire put an end to the lustrations created during the 19th century plans for reconstruction at the palace. From where, alongside the nearby southern facade 1799 to 1801, the Russian administration ini- of the Cathedral, one could see depictions of tiated the demolition of the remaining walls the grand ducal palace which still existed in of the palace. What remained was only part some form for several decades, and would of the east wing which had been demolished sometimes be referred to as simply the Ja- as far as the second floor, all the walls of this giellonian Castle. The historic residence re- wing had been taken apart and the ruined half- mained vital in the works of historians and Site of the demolished Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and the south and east walls of the Vilnius Cathedral, bricks were used to assemble the second floor Romantic writers as well. Józef Peszka, ca 1808, VUB Vilnius castle territory map with tsarist Russian fortifications, 1834, РГИА Vilnius City map, Johann Georg Maximilian Fürstenhof, 1737, StB PK Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and Vilnius Cathedral from the south, Karol Raczyński, based on a drawing by Pietro de Rossi, 1834, LDM.

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