Location: Panevėžys County Map
Info: J Janonio 2 (450) 33 496
Sela Museum
J Radvilos 3
Tel. (450) 31 883
Open: 10am- 5:30pm Wed- Sat
9am- 4:30pm Sun
Biržai Castle is a historic residence situated in Panevėžys County of Lithuania. It was constructed between 1586 and 1589 by Duke Kristupas Radvila (Radziwill) Perkūnas (God of Thunder). Lake Širvėna that lies to the North of the fortress was also formed around this time after Agluona and Apaščia rivers were dammed. The castle was captured in 1627 by the Swedish troops after a lengthy siege. The citadel was completely destroyed. In 1662- 69 the castle was reconstructed in the Dutch style, but the Swedes didn't take much time to show up and burn the new structure on September 14th, 1704. This time no one tried to fix the fortress. Biržai Castle was reconstructed in the end of the 20th century. It was completed only in 1988 in Renaissance-Baroque style.
The construction of the castle began around 1586. The initiative of
Kristupas Mikalojus Radvilas Perkūnas according to the plan of the
Italian bastion castles. The castle is surrounded by defensive moats
filled with water from the 400-hectare pond formed by damming the
Apaščia and Agluona rivers (currently Lake Širvėna). Upper and lower
ramparts with bastions at the corners. The outer slopes of the bastions
and courtyard were steep, reinforced with a masonry shell of
Gothic-bound bricks and stones.
The inside of the castle was
accessed via an arched bridge over a two-story brick gatehouse on the
eastern rampart. Until 1589 a brick three-story castle palace, an
arsenal, stables, food warehouses, and other buildings were built in the
yard.
During 1600-1629 The War of the Republic of Both Nations with Sweden
and during 1655-1660. During the Swedish Flood, Biržai Castle was an
important fortress in Lithuania.
in 1625 August 7 the castle was
besieged by about 8,000 Swedish troops led by the Swedish king Gustav II
Adolf himself. After the second assault on September 7. the castle crew
surrendered, the castle was destroyed. The Swedes took away 60 cannons.
According to 1627 January 19 according to the contract, the castle was
returned to the Radvilas.
1637-1682 the castle was rebuilt.
1637-1652 according to the plan of the Dutch bastion castles, the
architect G. Pirkas started to redo the ramparts. Brick reinforcement is
abandoned. A new palace was built according to the project of master
Jonas Ulrich (who also designed the Radvilai Palace in Vilnius), and the
old palace was demolished.
According to 1655 August 10 The Treaty
of Riga between the Radvils and the Swedes was not completed, and the
reconstruction of the Biržai Castle was returned to the Swedes.
in 1657 January 24 The Swedish crew of 190 people surrendered to the
army led by LDK field hetman Vincent Gosievskis, who destroyed the
castle and burned the city. in 1659 August 20 the castle was taken back
by Boguslav Radvila's dragoons. 1659-1669 according to the project of
the architect T. Krel-Spinovskis, the embankments, the dam were
repaired, the palace, barracks, arsenal, gate tower were built (engineer
S. Arciševskis).
During 1700-1721 Northern War, 1701 February 26
in the castle, the ruler of the Republic of the Two Nations, Elector
Augustus II of Saxony, and Tsar Peter I of Russia signed the
anti-Swedish Treaty of Birži. in 1704 September 14 the castle was again
occupied by the Swedes, who blew up the palace and other buildings.
XVI-XVII centuries. Biržai Castle is a significant example of civil
and military construction in Lithuania and Northeastern Europe.
The first fortifications of the castle
Biržai Castle was built and
fortified, taking into account new methods of warfare and effective
defense against advanced artillery. Closed brick buildings and defensive
walls with corner and intermediate towers built at that time in
Lithuania and other northern European countries were abandoned. In their
place, earthen bastions were installed on the example of Italian bastion
castles, and the slopes of the protective earthen embankments were
walled with bricks and stones on the outside. The height of the
embankments is 3-5 m. The shell of the slopes is 2.5–3.0 m thick, 10–12
m high on the outside; the entire length of the ramparts was 900 m. The
slopes of some bastions and trenches were reinforced with masonry.
Pointed bastions were installed at all four corners of the castle
courtyard. A protective rampart surrounded the bastions and the ramparts
connecting them. An elongated three-story residential building was built
on the western edge of the yard, and next to it there was an Evangelical
Reformed church with a tall tower. In the constrictions of the bastions,
2-3 story casemates with windows and firing holes are installed. At the
top of the casemates were defensive platforms with jagged parapets. In
the corners of the bastions, powder and weapons cellars are installed
under the ramparts, small observation towers are built on top, and
two-story barracks are located on the western side of the castle.
Not only a defensive building, but also an architectural highlight
is very important - the two-story brick tower of the castle gate, built
in the axis of symmetry of the territory, on the eastern side of the
courtyard, in front of the only way to the castle - the wooden bridge.
The tower stood along the eastern rampart. Access to the castle
courtyard was through a corridor in the gatehouse; A 16 m long, 4.5 m
wide corridor ran parallel to the embankment. Neither the gate nor other
buildings of the first castle survived: the brick palace and
fortifications in 1625. the Swedish armies were greatly destroyed. Only
the foundations of the rectangular gate structure (19.5×11.7 m) were
found.
The planning of the facility complex of the first castle
is Renaissance, but the building structures contain Gothic relics along
with Renaissance features.
The castle after reconstruction
in
1626 The reconstruction work started by Kristupas Radvila was continued
by Jonušas Radvila, who sought to modernize the fortification according
to the type of Dutch bastion castles. Some of the design work was done
by Adam Freitag (Polish: Adam Freytag). New bastions with ramparts and
trenches were installed, four redoubts were poured. A 5-7 m high, 19.4 m
(now 21-23 m) wide embankment was built instead of the former embankment
with a masonry shell and trenches, a 4-7 m deep and 31.4 m (now 30-37 m)
wide trench was excavated.
The castle after reconstruction
After the war with the Swedes, the rebuilding of the castle was
organized by Boguslav Radvila. On his behalf, the architect Teofilis
Spinovskis and the engineer Samuelis Arciševskis prepared the city plan
of Biržai, drawings of the barracks, the gate building and other
buildings, and supervised the construction works. The castle was built
by masons from Biržai, Kėdainiai and Vilnius. The rebuilt Biržai Castle
was much larger than the first one and occupied an area of 13
hectares. It contained many different brick and wooden buildings, of
which the residence palace and the new gate building built on the site
of the old gate stood out in particular.
The palace plan of
Biržai Castle is symmetrical, rectangular - 24.9 m wide and 71.1 m long.
The palace consisted of three main parts: three-story ends, two-story
middle part. On the facade of the central part towards the courtyard,
there were open arcade galleries on both floors. This composition of the
middle part of the palace facade is a unique phenomenon in Lithuanian
Renaissance architecture. Next to both three-story risalites, which had
four-pitched roofs and gilded helmets with coats of arms, two ornate
internal staircases were installed. The building had about forty rooms:
spacious halls and living rooms, living rooms. The rooms were
rectangular or almost square with 1.3 m thick outer and 1.2 m inner
walls.
Interior
The interior equipment was ornate, sumptuous:
the walls of some rooms were decorated with wooden boiserie, the ceiling
was decorated with ornamental and figurative plasterwork, painted
compositions. In the rooms there were stoves made of glazed bricks with
ornamental motifs and heraldic signs of Radvils. There were many (about
1000) paintings and sculptures in the palace. The dining room was
especially artistically furnished - a large hall, the walls of which are
lined with boiserie, and the ceiling is decorated with military-themed
paintings. The walls and staircases had niches surrounded by Renaissance
borders for decorative sculptures. The rooms on both floors were covered
with vaults.
The architectural composition of the palace has
prominent features of the late renaissance: symmetrical and clear plan,
simple wall planes, long straight strips of cornices between floors,
strictly symmetrical rhythm of the windows, rusty corners of the
three-story rear ridges, broken window frames, open gallery of arcades,
roof silhouette corresponding to local climatic conditions. However, in
some places (mouldings, panels and panels) there are also Mannerist
elements.
The decor of the gate building and the composition of
the layout were original. The gate is a two-story, three-part,
rectangular (32x22 m) building with two towers. During the construction
of the castle, it housed the living rooms of the Radvils. The front part
of the gate building was decorated with decorative panels and stone
sculptures. Many details of the gate building and palace decor,
sculptures are carved from local material: sandstone, dolomite, gypsum
blocks. It is mentioned that some decoration work in the castle (ceiling
of the arsenal, facade of the gate, etc.) was done by the local artist
Jonas Bodašauskas.
The bridge
A very important engineering and
defense device of the castle was a 41 m long bridge over a wide
protective moat. The bridge had four gates. It had a wooden top, two
lifts, a carriageway and footpaths. The bridge was supported by eight
pairs of brick octagonal pillars. On the city side, behind the ravelin,
there was a second bridge about 15 m long with a gate and a lift.
Ravelin, the two bridges and the gatehouse formed a strong front
defensive complex of the castle.
Restoration
in 1811 Biržai
Castle passed to Counts Tiškevičiai. in 1822 Emperor Alexander I of the
Russian Empire ordered the preservation of the remains of the castle.
19th century at the end of the 20th century At the beginning, a garden
was planted in the courtyard of the castle. in 1931 a sculptural bust of
Jonuš Radvila (sculptor Juozas Zikars) was placed in the yard.
The defensive system of dikes and water ditches, 1955-1962, remains. the
remains of the palace are preserved. in 1984 and in 1994 the parapets of
the eastern bastion, the ruins of the gate building have been restored.
in 1970 rebuilt, and in 2001 the castle bridge was rebuilt (architect
Napalys Kitkauskas). 1978-1986 the central part of the palace and the
western wall were rebuilt (architect Evaldas Purlys).
in 1989
Biržai Region Museum "Sēla" was opened in the castle palace.
2011-2013 after several years of archaeological excavations, the castle
arsenal was rebuilt. It is equipped with 17th-18th century. warfare
exposition.
Research
The territory of the castle in 1884 M.
Tiškevičius, the owner of the Biržai manor, who was excavating, found
cartridges, gold and silver statuettes. Since 1930 The castle is
periodically studied by the Monuments Restoration Institute, Biržai
Regional Museum "Sēla". Plots near the palace facades, the gate
building, the redoubt, the forecourt, the palace cellars, the arsenal,
the territory of the castle on the north-west side, the garrison on the
south side (now rebuilt), part of the barracks were investigated. The
remains of the palace of the first castle, the barracks of the third
castle, the outbuildings and other buildings were unearthed.
It
is believed that the Renaissance palace of the first castle, like the
present one, was two-storied, with three-storied risalites at the ends,
a two-storied arched gallery 54.5 m long and 18 m wide on the eastern
facade. Their south-western outer wall was under the south-western
embankment, which was filled in later, the inner one was next to the
south-western facade of the current palace, and the north-eastern outer
wall was under the palace.
A large number of unglazed and
polychrome cobblestones of various periods were found, among them with
the coats of arms of Ludvika Karolina Radvilaitė and Kristupas
Mikalojaus Radvila Perkūnas, projectiles, pottery shards, architectural
details from sandstone and dolomite. 2009-2010 archaeologist Roma
Songailitė conducted archaeological research on the territory of the
former Arsenal building in the territory of the Biržai fortress. The
entire 700 m² area of the former building was investigated. After the
research, the reconstruction of the Arsenal building began, which is
expected to be completed in 2014.