Vilnius before it was Vilnius and Gediminas’ Vilnius at the National Museum –Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

Europe first heard about the eternal capital of the Lithuanian state, Vilnius, in 1323, when Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas (1316–1341), who titled himself “the king of the Lithuanians and many of the Ruthenians”, wrote and sent out his famous letters. Thus, 2023 is justifiably the 700th year of commemoration of Vilnius, testifying to the earliest known mention of the city in written sources.

However, people had lived in Vilnius and where its castles later stood since much earlier. The earliest trace of human activity dates to 6000 BCE. It is thought that in the 2nd–13th centuries, at the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia rivers and on the surrounding hills there was a wooden settlement or settlements, some of which later came to be fortified.

In the second half of the 20th century, archaeologists and architectural researchers found fragments of the first early brick architecture in the territory of the Vilnius Lower Castle – on the site of the Cathedral and the residence of the Lithuanian grand dukes. Attempts were made to try to associate these remnants with the reign of the first and only king of Lithuania, Mindaugas (1253–1263).

With the commencement of systematic, consecutive and complexical research of the Palace of the Grand Dukes territory in 1987, the mists of time gradually started to rise, bringing into shape the contours of the lost and forgotten heritage of Vilnius. Specialists expected to uncover the foundations of the Renaissance palace of Sigismund the Old (1506–1548) and his son Sigismund Augustus (1544/1548–1572), yet it became apparent that Lithuania’s grand dukes had been living on this site – the western foot of Castle Hill, which appeared as a horn-shaped plateau leading downwards – since much earlier.

Archaeologists and other researchers from the Castle Research Centre “Lietuvos pilys” and the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, often assisted by specialists from the Faculty of History at Vilnius University, discovered Vilnius before it was Vilnius, i.e., the dating of the factual establishment of the city of Vilnius and the brick castle of the Lithuanian ruler was brought forward by at least several decades.

Complexical research, additionally backed by the dendrochronological method, prompted a bold and unequivocal conclusion that already before Gediminas, in the late 13th century, the first and then only brick castle in the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania had already been built on the western slope of Castle Hill. This castle may have been built in secrecy, so that enemies would not interfere in its construction. And then, only when the Early Brick Castle had already been built in Vilnius did Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas declare far and wide that this was his throne castle, the ruler’s city. The monumental size of the bricks used for the castle is evidence that early masonry in Lithuania was of Western origins, having no connection to the Byzantine brickwork tradition once alive in the lands of Kievan Rus’, which had already been joined to Lithuania. The masons and brick architecture teachers working on the Early Brick Castle in Vilnius were most probably masters from Livonia, as Lithuania’s relations with this land during the times of both Mindaugas, Vytenis (ca 1295–1316) and Gediminas were rather intensive and often amicable. Application of the Baltic (Wend) brick bond confirms that the Early Brick Castle had preceded the Gothic epoch and can be considered as a reflection of the European Romanesque in Lithuania.

Thus, even prior to 1323, the Early Brick Castle already stood in Vilnius on the western slope of Castle Hill, and was most likely the residence of Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, from where he dictated his famous letters. In Gediminas’ times, this castle experienced its first stage of modernisation, reinforcement and expansion. During the course of this process, the round tower standing in the north west corner of the trapezoid enclosure type castle was replaced by a larger, more spacious octagonal tower – the donjon, which undoubtedly also served a residential-representational function.

Fragments of this “real” tower of Gediminas, the castle’s defensive walls at the time and buildings that may have served a residential function, situated in the castle yard as well as near the southern wall, were discovered, preserved, restored and have been made accessible to each visitor to the National Museum –Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. They are evidence that early brick architecture had already begun

Vilniaus dienos Valdovų rūmuose renginiams pristatyti skirtoje spaudos konferencijoje dalyvavo skulptorius Martynas Gaubas, UAB „Gluk Media“ vadovas Simas Chomentauskas, Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekos direktorius dr. Sigitas Narbutas, Valdovų rūmų muziejaus generalinio direktoriaus pavaduotoja kultūrai ir mokslui dr. Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė, Valdovų rūmų muziejaus generalinis direktorius dr. Vydas Dolinskas bei Vilniaus klubo senato narė ir Kultūros komiteto pirmininkė Rita Bartkevičienė, 2023 m. sausio 24 d.

The press conference held to present the events part of Vilnius Day at the Palace of the Grand Dukes was attended by sculptor Martynas Gaubas, Director of Gluk Media Simas Chomentauskas, Director of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Dr Sigitas Narbutas, Deputy Director General for Culture and Science of the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Dr Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė, Director General of the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Dr Vydas Dolinskas and Vilnius Club Senate member and Chair of the Culture Committee Rita Bartkevičienė, January 24, 2023

Naujai į lietuvių kalbą išverstų ir atskiru leidiniu išleistų Gedimino laiškų fragmentus tikrojo Gedimino bokšto mūrų apsuptyje lotyniškai ir lietuviškai skaitė tekstų vertėjas dr. Sigitas Narbutas ir žymus aktorius Vladas Bagdonas

Fragments of Gediminas’ letters newly translated into Lithuanian and released as a separate publication were read aloud in Latin and Lithuanian amid the walls of the real tower of Gediminas by the letters’ translator Dr Sigitas Narbutas and the well-known actor Vladas Bagdonas

Archeologinio svirno rekonstrukcija ir XIII a. pabaigos Vilniaus vizija. Vizualizacijos autorius Rimas Sakalauskas

Archaeological barn reconstruction and a vision of late 13th-century Vilnius. Visualisation by Rimas Sakalauskas

Gintautas Striška

Nacionalinis muziejus

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