THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA HALL CONTAINING RECONSTRUCTION PLANS FOR THE ROYAL PALACE

The Royal Palace of Lithuania
The Royal Palace of Lithuania is the chief symbol of the long-lived Lithuanian state. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was established in the 13th century and developed into one of the biggest European states. The Royal Palace, also known as the Palace of the Grand Dukes, is the main center of the Vilnius Castle Complex, presenting the historical Lithuanian statehood.
After cruel wars in the 17th Century, which caused a considerable weakening of the state, there was always an attempt to rebuild the destroyed Royal Palace. For more than a hundred and fifty years the question of Palace reconstruction was considered not only by the governing bodies of the Regional administrative districts of Lithuania, but also by the Seym representative body of Lithuania and Poland.
The Royal Palace has always been understood as the main symbol of Lithuanian statehood. The Czar of Russia sought to destroy every representation of Lithuanian statehood after occupying The Grand Duchy of Lithuania. As a result, he had the ruins of the Palace of the Grand Dukes demolished at the end of the 18th Century. Despite all of the Czar’s and, later, Soviet Russia’s plottings against Lithuania, the importance of The Royal Palace remained as an essential part of the Lithuanian consciousness. For this reason, as soon as Lithuania became independent in 1991, the issue of reconstruction of The Royal Palace was immediately raised, being considered of utmost importance. Indeed, even before independence, in 1987, intensive explorations began in the territory of The Royal Palace and donations for Palace reconstruction were collected. Within eleven years the work of the Castle Research Center generated the material and financial conditions needed to begin rebuilding The Royal Palace. A work crew supervised by Dr. Kitkauskas prepared the high-tech reconstruction plans.

Exposition
The work crew’s photographs, drawings, charts and models, high-tech representations; historical sketches, comparative reconstruction plans, and information about the reconstruction of The Royal Palace are presented in The Grand Duchy of Lithuania Hall. Archeological findings from excavations in the Palace territory and exhibits from the Lithuanian Art Museum are also available for viewing.
Printed, digital and video information about comparative reconstructions of royal palaces in other countries, as well as information about their restoration works, functions, cultural activities and the programs existing in those palaces is also presented in the Hall.

Additional information about the museum
The aim of The Grand Duchy of Lithuania Hall is to continually present to the public projects connected with The Royal Palace and its reconstruction.

Photos by Danute Mukiene