Vilnius palaces interestingly complement the colourful landscape of the multi-ethnic city. They are a distinctive and diverse group of buildings, although heavily modified in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Vilnius palaces began to be built in the 16th century as a result of changes in residential and representative architecture, created for representatives of the social elite of the time. Their shape was influenced by architectural trends in Poland, linked to European architecture, and by local peculiarities, which included such elements as the lack of regular parceling of Vilnius, the construction of buildings in the midst of already existing, dense secular and sacred buildings of many faiths, the use of older walls, and a distinct lack of good architects and builders in the city. Consequently, from the very beginning, Vilnius palaces were characterised by irregularity, small size and - for the most part - characteristic style backwardness.

The necessity of a suitable residence in Vilnius was briefly explained by the Lithuanian chancellor Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac (1621-1684): "for [...] public acts a 'residentia' is often needed [...] in Vilnius". However, it was not only active participation in political life, including the performance of official duties in a private palace in the so-called 'chancellery rooms', promotions and the hope of further dignities that were behind the need to organise a residence, corresponding to the status or expressing the desire of individual actors of the political scene of the time to stand out. Some people came down to Vilnius for the winter, but also for church holidays, the setting of which was more solemn there. Life in the Lithuanian capital was also much more colourful in social terms. Still others settled in the city for the education of children. Women magnates and noblewomen also resided in Vilnius, participating in the political, religious and cultural events of the city. Among other reasons for owning a palace in the capital, it is necessary to point out financial prevention, by purchasing real estate and profiting from it, also by renting it for lodgings, but also by conducting trade, crafts, warehousing (cellars and ground floors of palaces), or organising taverns. Very often the city palace was combined with a palace in the suburbs (the so-called suburban palace), set in an extensive garden. The palace was used primarily in the spring and summer months for entertainment and recreation.

In Vilnius itself, all palaces were built as street-side palaces, with a gate in front, but not always placed on an axis, which was influenced by the incorporation of an older building into the construction, or the merging of irregular and narrow plots. Only palaces outside the strict city centre, such as the Naruszewicz palace (the so-called Small Radziwiłł palace) or the palaces of the Zenowicz (Łopaciński) and Aleksandrowicz (Tyszkiewicz) families, had gates located next to them.

Seventeenth-century palaces were most often enclosed by two wings, although not always of symmetrical depth, and the initial projection of the urban residences was U-shaped. In subsequent decades, the wings were extended, not infrequently incorporating detached outbuildings into their mass. Sometimes the side wings were joined by a transverse wing, closing off the courtyard. Hence the association of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887), writing: "palaces erected in the city were most often built into a square, like fortified castles, with turrets, towers, a surrounding wall, and two gates stretching across". These turrets and towers were nothing more than stairwell spaces. They were also used as offices and bedrooms, as exemplified by the Sapieha and Słuszek palaces in Antokol. Such turreted forms were associated with the castle, a building appropriate for the nobility as it referred to the knightly topos.

Palaces erected in the suburbs were necessarily combined with extensive gardens shaped in the French fashion with fountains and arbours. In the 1880s, Vilnius gardens also began to have bowling lanes (e.g. the Sapieha palace in Antokol), but also 'kaffenhauzy', or cafés of the time, which brought additional income to the owner. In both the Radziwiłł palaces, at Pushkarnia and Lukiszki, a bathroom building was erected in the gardens. In the very centre of Vilnius, there was usually no more room for gardens in the courtyards, although efforts were made to organise even the smallest vegetable gardens. Instead, a stable, coach house, brewery, kitchen and bakery, and sometimes a bathhouse (Hlebowicz Palace) were obligatory built in the yard. At the back of the estate, toilets called 'prewets' or 'noches' were also built for servants and lower officials of the magnate court.

The interiors of the residences necessarily consisted of a hallway on the ground floor and rooms with representative and residential functions on the ground floor. The most important was the grand dining room (the so-called dining room) with a cupboard room (where crockery was kept and food was heated). The remaining spaces housed the residential flats. In the classical version, their minimum programme consisted of an antechamber (a kind of anteroom), a bedroom - sometimes with an alcove (a separate space for a bed), and a study, and at the beginning of the 18th century also a dressing room. Interestingly, the suites of the master and mistress of the house were separated from each other, as exemplified by the residences in Antokol, but also by the 18th-century disposition of the Sołohub palace, where they included a dining room. The programme of the residence could be extended to include a chapel (e.g. the Gosiewski palace, the Brzostowski palace) and a library with an archive (the Hlebowicz palace). It was obligatory to organise a treasury and, in the 18th century, a cordegarden or even a guard room located on the ground floor, as in the Radziwill palace in Trocka Street. At this time, in larger palaces, the dining room was separated from the ballroom. Earlier, the two functions were combined in one room by adding a balcony for musicians, which was associated with the custom of feasting in the company of music, but also with having private, often very numerous bands (e.g. the palaces of the Sapiehs in Dominikańska Street and the Hlebowiczs in Niemiecka Street). From the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, billiard rooms were arranged in the palaces (e.g. the Pacs' Hetman palace) as a result of the fashion for English.

In the palace wings of the ground floor, additional kitchens with larders were placed, and from the beginning of the 18th century also confectionery rooms, where desserts were made, intended to please not only with their taste, but also with their craftsmanship.

The representative and living quarters were covered with ceilings and were less often vaulted. However, in the 17th century it was mandatory to vault the ground floor rooms. In the 18th century, "gypsum ceilings" or "smooth plastered ceilings" were popular. Floors were made of wood, oak, pine or ash, sometimes with a chequered or striped pattern. The rooms used as offices were sometimes covered with bricks, which could also be found on the usable ground floor, but also in loggias, which had not only a view but also communication functions. The walls were decorated with fabrics. Even before the middle of the 18th century, wallpaper appeared in Vilnius, some of which was imported from Riga. At that time, white wainscoting ("lamperies") painted with flowers also became an obligatory element.

An important part of interior decoration in the 17th century was detail made in stone, whether imported from the Netherlands and Sweden or from Lesser Poland. Stucco appeared in the decoration at this time, with which the Radziwiłłs' residences in the suburbs were decorated, and was certainly present in the residences in Antokol and the Pacs' palaces. The residences were also decorated with polychromes of a decorative, often illusionist (e.g. the staircase of the Pacs' Hetman palace), but also narrative nature, as exemplified by Palloni's frescoes from the Sapieha palace in Antokol with themes of mythology and court games. In the 1860s, one of the rooms in the Brzostowski palace was painted in the shape of a garden gazebo.

In the 17th century, the interiors were illuminated with chandeliers, including spider lights suspended from the ceilings, which were decorated with deer antlers in the representative rooms. In the 18th century, crystal appliqués and chandeliers appeared, as well as lanterns. Light was also provided by fireplaces accompanied by cookers. In addition to their heating function, they also had an aesthetic function, influencing the appearance of the rooms.