Defensive fortifications of real estate properties of the residents of Vilnius in the 15th–17th centuries.

Autorius, remdamasis ilgamete istorinės architektūros ir restauratoriaus patirtimi, archeologų ir istorikų tyrimais, analizuoja Vilniaus miestiečių XV–XVII a. posesijų įtvirtinimus. Nors iki šiol žinomi tik keli išlikę posesijų gynybą patvirtinantys elementai, tačiau istorinis fonas autoriui leidžia kelti hipotezę, kad tokios architektūros kadaise būta daug. Straipsnyje išsamiai pristatomi visi žinomi posesijų gynybiniai elementai, jų išaiškinimo aplinkybės.As various robbers and mercenaries who were left without pay continuously ravaged the residents of towns and cities and manor estates, reliable means of protection were in great demand. Thus nobles had other concerns besides the fostering of culture. Even in Vilnius, which was surrounded by a defensive wall, guards hired by the magistrate and a night watch kept by the city residents did not provide enough protection. The tradition of building more or less advanced defensive fortifications for the city’s real estate properties probably goes back to the period of wooden architecture. Brick (possibly also wooden) residential houses had not only ironbound gates and barred windows, but also loopholes for the defence of the gate. Gates to courtyards with loopholes above them found in four locations of the Old Town of Vilnius vividly illustrate the necessity to protect private houses and property that was characteristic of the lifestyle of the city’s residents in the 15th–17th century. At that time, the saying “My house is my fortress” was understood literally. The earliest example of a real estate property prepared for defence is the Radziwiłł (later, Kęsgaila) estate at 5 Šv. Ignoto St., which is attributed to the second half of the 15th century. In this street we have an example of a gate to a private property with defensive fortifications, which was built before the construction of the city wall. So far it is the only known property with surviving fortifications from that time. Four other fortifications found during architectural research were formed already after the construction of the city wall (one of them appeared when the old loopholes at 5 Šv. Ignoto St. had been replaced with new modern ones). While the city wall was under construction in the early 16th century, the residents did not expect any life-changing developments and themselves built and improved fortifications of their houses and properties. Loopholes in the gate to the Radziwiłł (later, Kęsgaila) estate at 5 Šv. Ignoto St. were restructured to make them look similar to the ones in the city wall. Loopholes were also installed in the Bernardine Church that was built approximately at the same time as the city wall. Less known loopholes under the windows must have been particularly functional. The most impressive example attributed to the second half of the 16th century is the defensive wall of a real estate property at 6 Šv. Ignoto St., opposite to the Radziwiłł-Kęsgaila estate, which was discovered in 1970, exposed and restored in 1976–1986. In the last years of the 16th century, round loopholes of decorative shapes were installed in the wall above the sgrafitto-decorated entrance gate to the courtyard of the Unitarian College at 8 Aušros Vartų St. The latest example of loopholes above the entrance gate to a real estate property among those found in Vilnius is on the other side of Aušros Vartų Street, in building No. 13. This gate wall should be attributed to the first half or even the middle of the 17th century. The larger part of defensive elements of residential houses were bricked up or dismantled during later reconstructions, and the surviving small fragments might have been left unnoticed or not understood during research. The surviving four examples from various periods do not allow us to say if the phenomenon of building private shooting galleries above the gates was widespread, all the more in a certain period. The growing decorativeness of loopholes shows that towards the 17th century loopholes increasingly acquired a symbolic meaning or disappeared altogether. In some properties, loopholes above the gates were discarded already in the late 16th and early 17th century. There were undoubtedly more than four examples of gates with loopholes and shooting galleries above the gates of Vilnius, and loopholes of a certain type or their remains should come up during research on real estate properties from the Gothic and Baroque periods, but researchers must specifically look for them in the course of work