History of Bastion of the Vilnius Defensive Wall

The territory of the Higher and Lower Castles of Vilnius was well fortified. However, the city was growing, its territory was expanding and the castle was no longer sufficient enough to protect the town-dwellers. Following the Battle of Grundwald in 1410, the city of Vilnius was safe until the beginning of the 16^th century. During that period the city continued to grow and expanded far beyond the territory of the castles.

At the end of the 15^th - the beginning of the 16^th centuries, the emerging centralized state of Russia posed threat to Lithuania. At the request of the dwellers of Vilnius, Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander (1492–1506) ordered to build a defensive wall of the city under the privilege of 1503. All the inhabitants of the city had to take part in the construction works. Those who were unable to build a brick wall had to erect a wall of sharpened wooden stakes. Vilnius Voivode Michal Radziwill delineated the boundaries of the wall. In 1522, the construction works of the defensive wall were completed. The wall contained five gates; however, already at the beginning of the 17^th century the wall comprised ten gates and two defensive towers. During the first half of the 17^th century, a bastion was erected in the Tower Hill near the defensive wall.

The bastion was a fortified defensive building built of earth and brick intended for the defence of the city. The bastion was comprised of a tower, a horseshoe-shaped part where artillery was stored, and a connecting tunnel. It is considered that the bastion was designed by military engineer Fryderyk Getkant. There is no precise information as to when the bastion was built. The fortification must have been erected following the dramatic political and military events of the 16^th-17^th centuries. The fact that the bastion was constructed later than the defensive wall is confirmed by archaeological investigations, written sources, and the plans of the city of Vilnius from various periods. The fact that the bastion had already been built at the beginning of the 17^th century is evidenced by the August 9, 1627 document of representative of Vilnius Voivodeship Jonas Jundila. On that day the defensive wall of the city was inspected and its technical status was evaluated. The bastion is also mentioned in the document; however, no information is given about its status as this fortification was newly erected.

During the 1654-1667 war with Tsar of Moscow Aleksey Mikhailovich (1645–1676), Vilnius was occupied by the Russian army for the period from 1655 to 1661. The defensive wall of the city and the bastion were badly damaged. In 1661, the forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania reclaimed the city of Vilnius, and all the defensive fortifications damaged during the war were renovated and reconstructed. However, during the Northern War (1700–1721), Vilnius once again suffered great damage inflicted by foreign military forces.

Gradually, the bastion lost its defensive function. In the middle of the 18^th century, the building was still on the surface of the ground as it is marked clearly in the 1753 plan by Georg Max von Fürstenhoff. Subsequent city plans made in 1793-1862 contain no marks of the bastion with the exception of the tower in the city plan of 1793. Due to the effort of the tsarist administration, practically all the defensive fortifications of the city of Vilnius were demolished at the beginning of the 19^th century, whereas the territory of the bastion was turned into the dumpsite of the city with its ditches and walls buried under the ground.

In 1966, archaeological and architectural investigations as well as the reconstruction works of the bastion were commenced – the tower was rebuilt and covered with a roof, the interior of the cannon room and the tunnel linking the tunnel with the room were renovated.

In 1987, the museum was opened in the bastion.