Serenissima Res Publica Coronae Regni Poloniae Magnique Ducatus Lithuaniae, as the officially named Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united by the Union of Lublin - "Lenkijos Karalystė ir Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė " , had two political capitals - Krakow and Vilnius. The historical - capital function of the former Gediminas castle and the development of central Lithuanian offices obviously determined the all-round flourishing of the city on the Neris. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was the seat of noble and aristocratic families who built their city palaces.

The history of the residences in the modern era and after the partitions of the Republic was as complex as its history. They were rebuilt in the 19th century, then further transformed and devastated during the communist rule, some of them ceased to exist. But still the survivors are visible in the cityscape, and in recent years work has been underway to restore their splendour and give them a new function.

Work carried out in 2019-2022

In 2019-2021, Anna Sylwia Czyż, PhD, Professor UKSW, carried out a research project funded by the Polonica Institute entitled. 'The residential modern architecture of Vilnius up to 1795. The queries in the Vilnius archives, the comprehensive state of research and the identification of monuments in the city have yielded surprisingly extensive material for interpretation, but above all for scientific presentation.

An obvious consequence of our research projects is the publication of this research. The book entitled 'Vilnius Palaces of the 17th-18th Centuries' is the first attempt at a comprehensive presentation of the history of the magnate and noble residences in Vilnius. The author presents in three synthetic-analytical chapters the historical as well as architectural-urban conditions of the palace architecture of Vilnius, followed by the characteristics of the Vilnius circle of architects and builders of the seventeenth-eighteenth century, and in the third chapter the most important tendencies, but also deviations in the architectural shape of the Vilnius residences.

The essence of the publication is a catalogue of 41 palaces. These are both preserved and unpreserved. It takes up two-thirds of the entire book. The catalogue notes were conceived as a monograph of each residence, hence they include, apart from historical data, formal analyses, which were not included in the earlier synthetic part of the book. An extensive, sometimes even dominant part of a given note is taken up by archival extracts, often providing surprising new information. And it is precisely the archival extracts that are another significant value of the book. In addition, each note contains a standard illustrative section, consisting of historical and contemporary cartography, survey drawings and, of course, iconography with selected contemporary photographs.

The comprehensive compendium of knowledge about the palaces closes with the appendix "Dictionary of architects and builders active in Vilnius in the 17th-18th centuries" - the result of painstaking queries and painstaking editorial work - which could be a stand-alone study in itself; together with the catalogue, it is a leaven for further research.

The book - almost 700 pages in length - is the first scholarly dissertation on the palaces of Vilnius, it is also the first such synthesis on the palaces of significant cities of the Republic. Warsaw, Krakow, as well as Lviv and Grodno await a similar study. It makes an indisputable contribution to further synthetic and monographic studies of modern noble residences not only in the capital of Lithuania, but also in other historical cities of the former Republic.

Work carried out in 2023.

The aim of the project is to publish the Lithuanian version of the pioneering catalogue 'Vilnius Palaces of the 17th-18th Centuries', published by the Polonika Institute, covering the residential architecture of Vilnius of this period.

Work has been completed on the translation of a book into Lithuanian entitled "Vilnius. "Vilniaus rūmai XVII-XVIII amžiuje". Further printing work on the book is needed.

Subsidised by the state budget. Target grant for current expenditure from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the state budget. Task: Implementation of seven publishing projects