This unit was developed by Norbertas Černiauskas Bibliography Didactic Comments
Source Sheet: Vilnius 16th Century - Cultural Life
1. 16th century Royal Palace of Lithuania and the history of its reconstruction
The Royal Palace in the Lower castle in Vilnius was the political, administrative, and cultural centre of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Stone palace of the Lower Castle was built in the 13th century. In the first half of the 16th century, the palace was remodeled in the Renaissance style by the invited Italian architects. The Royal Palace was greatly damaged during the Russian occupation in 1655-1661. Plundered and devastated, the palace was no longer a suitable state residence. It was abandoned. After the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Vilnius was incorporated into Tsarist Russia, and at the beginning of the 19th century the Royal Palace was completely demolished. At the end of the 18th century painter P. Smuglevičius succeeded to record the remains of the palace in some of his paintings.
One of those paintings:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Royal_Palace_of_Vilnius_in_XVIIIc._Lithuania.jpg
During the life of a painter Napoleon Orda (1807-1883) the palace was no longer existing. Still based on the painting by the architect J. C. Rossa of 1793, he has done a lithograph:
http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Orda/Images/Wilno_dolny_zamek.jpg
200 years after the demolition, the reconstruction of the Royal Palace was started according to the model of the 16th century. The detailed plans and iconography of that period, however, do not exist or are very scarce. Illustrations by P. Smuglevičius and other painters make the basis of the exterior of the Renaissance palace. The interior is to be reconstructed according to similar buildings elsewhere. In 2002 the reconstruction was officially commenced, the costs of the reconstruction is more than 200 million Lt (about 70 mln €) already, and the work is not yet finished. The reconstruction of the Royal Palace evoked profuse pros and cons towards the project.
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Architectural visualization of the reconstruction
http://www.visualmind.lt/index.php?lng=lt&pid=89
Model of the Palace
Pictures of the reconstruction
http://www.vilniauspilys.lt/royal3
Other Pics
http://wapedia.mobi/lt/Valdov%C5%B3_r%C5%ABmai
It is planned to establish the centre of historical culture with numerous expositions, which would represent cultural values of old Lithuanian state as well as glorious past of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The reconstruction of the Royal Palace will hopefully be over in 2009 for commemoration of the millennium since the first mention of the name of Lithuania.
Tasks
Do you think it is worth rebuilding the palace that existed centuries ago, and no precise plans had survived?
Tasks
Arrange debate on the issue. Some debaters should be in favour of the reconstruction of the Royal Place and present the pros; others should not sustain the project and present their cons.
Pros 1. From promotional video: A child says: "Mother told me that Lithuania had started here". 2. The idea of the reconstruction of the palace enters each home with tea, sweets, ice-cream, sausage, or other products promoting the label “Valdovų rūmai”. Part of the profit goes to the fund of the Royal Palace. Various manufacturers of Lithuania include a new label “Valdovų rūmai” into their marketing system, thus allowing the consumers to donate to the historical reconstruction. | Cons 1. Reconstruction of the Royal Palace is very expensive; therefore other spheres of cultural life suffer inadequate financing. 2. “Royal Palace is beautiful, but Lithuania is not just Vilnius”. 3. Many say that it's a project suitable for Disneyland. |
Tasks
Do you know any examples from other European countries rebuilding former royal palaces or other valuable buildings?
2. Architectural ensemble of St. Anne‘s and Bernardines‘ Churches – a masterpiece of late Gothic in Vilnius
The architectural ensemble of St. Anne‘s and Bernardines‘ Churches was built in the end of 15th c. – the beginning of 16th c. Though the Church of Bernardines after the later reconstructions has gained some certain features of the Renaissance and Baroque styles, the general Gothic character of the whole architectural ensemble does not raise any doubts.
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Visual material in the Internet
http://www.archyvai.lt/exhibitions/baznycios/ob3.jpg
http://www.fototisena.lt/photo-foto-search-0-101955.html
http://www.fotokronika.lt/fotografija/index/id/54266/search/Onos+ba%C5%BEny%C4%8Dia
http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/_/viewer.aspx?path=hut&name=c467044.jpg
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafika:Vilnius_St_Anns_church.jpg
Tasks
1. What general Gothic features do you discern in this most famous Gothic architectural ensemble in Vilnius?
2. Are there any Gothic buildings in your town?
3. What are the most famous Gothic buildings in the towns of your country and all over Europe?
4. What is Neogothic and what are its differences from Gothic?
5. What is the oldest building in your town or populated locality?
3. M. Daukša – propagator of the mother-tongue
Mikalojus Daukša was a Catholic church official, Counter-Reformation writer, and translator. He translated “Catechism” from Polish. This book, published in Vilnius in 1595, was the first book in Lithuanian printed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1599 in Vilnius another significant religious translation by M. Daukša was published. It was a book in Lithuanian, short-titled Postilla Catholicka. It included the sermons of one Polish Jesuit translated into Lithuanian, and M. Daukša himself wrote a preface in Polish “The Preface Unto Benevolent Reader”.
From “The Preface Unto Benevolent Reader” (1599)
Let me ask: is there in the world such a nation, however impoverished it might be, that does not have these three basic things: ancestral homeland, customs and native language? Always and everywhere people have spoken their native language and always struggled to protect it, and to beautify, improve and perfect it.
Nowhere on earth is there such a miserable nation as would abandon its own native language. Every nation aspires to use its native language for its laws, its affairs of state, its literature, and wishes to use it proudly and appropriately at all times, be it in the church, or at work, or at home.
One might ask, would there not be a sensation amongst the animals if the crow decided to sing like the nightingale, and the nightingale to croak like the crow? Or if the goat began to bellow like a lion, and the lion to bleat like the goat?
It is not the bounty of its crops, nor the distinctiveness of its garments, nor the beauty of its countryside, nor the strength of its castles and cities that make a nation hale; rather it is the maintenance and use of its native language, which strengthens fellowship, peace and brotherly love. For our language is our common bond of love, the mother of unity, the father of civic solidarity, the guardian of nationhood. If you destroy our language you destroy cooperation, unity and well-being.
Mikalojus DAUKŠA
Translation by Gintautas KAMINSKAS, Sydney
Tasks
1. How was the reasoning of M. Daukša about the mother tongue related with Reformation and Counter-Reformation ideas in European countries?
2. Why in the 16th century Europe the usage of colloquial language increased in social life, church, official documents?
3. How the ideas by M. Daukša about the mother tongue relate with later notions of the 19th century national movements in Europe?
