And let's get started....
The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is located in the centre of Vilnius. Close to Gediminas Tower, which I introduced to you in one of my previous posts, and the main street of Vilnius. The entrance fee is 8 euros, but there is a 50% discount for students and students.
There are four tour routes through the museum's exhibitions, which are divided into individual floors. For example the 1st route is located in the basement of the building. 2nd route covers the first floor and so on. The palace is also of interest to its visitors thanks to the Observation Tower, which offers a 360 degree view of Vilnius.
The Throne room
The rooms that I saw before the Throne room were in the style of Renaissance. Passing through the Throne room the feeling of the area has changed to Baroque. The whole room was in dark colors, especially red.
In the very middle there is a throne above which there is a coat of arms of Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and if I’m not mistaken, of Vasa dynasty. All of it, is surrounded by the order of Golden Fleece or order of golden lamp and at the very top there is a polish king’s crown.
On the very, very top there are two beautiful coat of arms – of Lithuania with Grand Dukes crown above it; Vasa dynasty symbol and polish coat of arms. Near the throne, there was a wooden fireplace with another coat of arms -Visa dynasty symbol, King’s crown and order of Golden Fleece. On the both sides of the throne, there were two beautiful candle silks from Tuscany that came from 16th century.
Another piece of interior that I noted was the ceiling. The Throne room is the only place in the whole Palace of Grand Dukes that has actual gold plating. To be honest, I thinks this makes the place even more special.
It is located on the Sixth floor of the Palace and is one of the most visited places.
The tour guide told me that this type of tower probably did not existed, bit it was created for visitors to be able to observe the whole Vilnius city. From there I saw Tower of Gediminas, the Three Crosses, Palace street, the Presidential building and Vilnius university. Why I liked the observation tower? It gave me a 360 degree view to the most important political and historical buildings in Vilnius.
The room with the crowns is one of the most beautiful in the whole palace. It houses the reconstructed crowns of the Lithuanian rulers. Apart from them, you can also see a number of coins with the image of the great Lithuanian rulers.
The third article of the Statutes of Lithuania from 1619
This is one of the most interesting floors in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
You can see: Medieval Castle's brick walls; Palace ruins and a model of the Vilnius castles; Authentic walls and wooden drainage systems; Coin Mint; Grand Dukes Treasury and others.
This route shows the original ruins of the Palace, the previous castles and most of the artifacts they've found during the archaeological research. Everything on this floor is authentic and it is easy to see the development of construction over the centuries.
