Radziwill Palace, Vilnius, Lithuania

Radziwiłł Palace is a Late Renaissance palace in the Old Town of Vilnius. It had been the second palace of Radziwiłłs by importance in Vilnius and the largest one. It is likely that Mikołaj 'the Black' Radziwiłł"s wooden Vilnius mansion was on the same site, but the current building was constructed by the order of Janusz Radziwiłł from 1635 until 1653, according to the design by Jan Ullrich. The building fell in ruin after the Muscovite invasion 1655-1660 and remain mostly neglected for centuries. It was further devastated during World War I and only the northern wing of the palace survived. Eventually, it was restored in 1980s and a division of the Lithuanian Art Museum is located there today. A part of the palace is still in need of renovation today.

Being the only survived Renaissance palace in Vilnius it has features of the Netherlands Renaissance as well as Manneristic decorations native to the Lithuanian Renaissance architecture. Its original layout and symmetry of structural elements was distinctive to the palaces of the Late French Renaissance resembling that of Château de Fontainebleau and Luxembourg Palace in Paris.

References:

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Palaces, manors and town halls in Lithuania

User Reviews

W K (4 years ago)
Amazing building and art museum, very interesting art from old to modern! Will definitely come again! ???????????????????????

Aras Kriauciunas (4 years ago)
Eh, too esoteric for me

Mateusz Nowicki (4 years ago)
Love it!

Sveta Matveenko (4 years ago)
Modern place with intetrsting exhibition

Marius Gorochovskis (4 years ago)
Once posh palace by one of the very famous Radvila (Radziwill) now partly destroyed, partly abandoned building. In one of the flangs a newly refurbished museum is conquering spaces and interestingly combines 17th century, Soviet era and modern white hall.

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