The Land Chronicle mentions the castle in Lida, the remains of which are ruined by local people stealing stone. The castle ruin itself is also briefly described (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany', Warsaw 1910, no. 30, p. 18, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Problems with the castle in Lida.

Painful things are told in "Kuryer Litewski" by Mr. Wandallm Szukiewicz about the Lida castle:

"The remains of Lida castle are even less fortunate than others. Very little is left here and what is there is being systematically ruined, not only by the inhabitants of the famous castle who are greedy for such choice material as stones from the walls, but even by unauthorised caretakers who seem intent on destroying all the features of such monuments and turning them into meaningless walls of stone. I saw it with my own eyes when a few weeks ago I visited the walls of the Lida castle in the company of an expert in architectural monuments, Father Canon Kozicki and a well-known researcher of Vilnius' past, Mr. Wac. Stadnicki. Traces of this once mighty construction can only be seen today in the sad remains of four walls of the four-sided peripheral wall, bound at right angles in only one of the north-eastern cores, and in three others shining through with wide breaches, so that the walls actually hold together only due to their accurate planning, as well as a thickness of up to 2.5 metres, and excellent lime binder. In general today the state of these remains is desperate, yet not long ago it was still much better and the whole character of the construction at the restoration could be preserved at least in contours. ".

In a photograph taken by Mr St. Fleury several years ago, we can still see the remains of the two corner inner towers, the so-called donjons, once defending the north-east and south-west nodes, still standing above the walls. Today, only larger piles of rubble tell of their existence. Whether the other two corner towers had any defence is impossible to determine today.

"What is there to say when even those who had good intentions of contributing to the maintenance of the ruins did so most miserably. Fate fell upon the north wall as facing the city. So, first of all, the inside of the wall was leveled vertically, obliterating even the traces of the arcade frames that once existed here, while the top of the wall and one of the sides were poured evenly with a mixture of lime. After such a restoration, the wall has the appearance of an Easter mazurka.".