The text describes Liszkowo in the Suwałki Governorate near Druskininkai. The history of Liszkowo, written down by Narbutt, is mentioned, as well as the surrounding castle and the church built by the Dominican Fathers on the model of St Peter's Basilica (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1876, Series 3, T:2, pp. 344-345, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Liszków

Liszków, or rather Liszkowo, in Lithuanian Liszklawa, is a village in the Suwałki gubernia, in the vicinity of Druskininkai, Merccza, with a beautiful, highly visible church, built on a high hill above the Neman River. To another steep and lofty hill on the Nemunas River, this village owes its historical position in Lithuania's history; such places, fortified in former times, were sought for building castles, which became the focal points of provincial life, the theatre of historical events and the beginning of many towns.

Krakow, Vilnius, Lviv, Grodno, Plock and a hundred other castles or villages rose at the foot of similar castle mountains. Theodore Narbutt begins the history of Liskiava as early as 1014, giving it to the Slavic princes of Hrodna, who at that time were to found Novogrodno, or Novogrudok (on the Neman River), which translates into Lithuanian as "Naujepille", from naujas - new and pilis - castle, garden. Indeed, the Teutonic Knights, as we know from their Wigand latopis, later called a castle on the Nemunas in these parts "Naueupille".

Probably it was Liszkowo, whose present name was established only during the reign of Jagiełło, when the monarch gave the above-mentioned estate to a certain Liszek Zybinta. This new name, having obliterated the previous one, confused the former history of Liskiava. It is certain that when the Mongols abolished Grodno and the Hlebovichs' rule in these parts around 1241, Lithuania took over the desolate country with its castles. If Narbutt's tale is to be believed, then Mindaugas crowned himself king of Lettow with his wife Martha, not in Kryvėnai Novgorod, but in a camp near Novgorod on the Neman River, i.e. near present-day Liškov. At the time of the Teutonic invasion, Lithuanian dukes built a fortress on the first mountain from the south, sloping from all sides, which is the first to be encountered on the Nemunas River. The fortress was made of granite boulders selected from the field, worked into the lime, and layered with a separate type of stone-hard brick cemented with a notable cement.

Four round towers, and probably also a peripheral wall, as well as oak spurs, made up the mighty medieval fortress of our pagan ancestors. These towers of thick masonry, rising on the slope of the mountain, were 7 to 10 fathoms apart, 3 to 4 in diameter. The Teutonic hordes sometimes leaned on Nauenpille, and Wigand relates that in 1380 the German advance guards slaughtered many of the local inhabitants near the castle, then, when the army arrived with cannons, they stormed the fortress the next day. The pagans who first heard the fiery shells, overwhelmed with fear, surrendered in numbers of three thousand. We do not know whether the Liskiava castle was already in ruins at that time, but it is certain that boulders from the fortress were used to build today's church and monastery in Liskiava.

Today there is no trace of the peripheral wall, only the foundations of three towers are left and the fourth tower is a few fathoms high and can be seen in the picture. At the foot of it, on the Nemunas side, there is an opening going horizontally, but it is too narrow to enter. This opening, according to the local inhabitants, leads to the shops in the castle hill, where huge treasures are hidden, guarded by an evil spirit. The local Lithuanian people call this castle "pilakalids", "pilkalnas", which literally means castle hill, from pilis - castle and kalnas - mountain. The remaining bastion is called "mihias-gintuwe". - giants' tower, or "muras-milžinų" - wall of giants, or even, according to Mr. Gieguzhinsky, "muras mitrinii" - muras wall.

This is indeed an amazing accumulation of so many huge boulders on such a steep mountain, no wonder that it attributes the people to giants, about which they have the same notions as the Vistula people. Only deafening news still reaches the people about the bloody battles with the Teutonic Knights and about the burning of sacrifices to the gods on this mountain and the altar called "iunicza", i.e. an oracle, a temple. The Oryls, sailing along the Nemunas near the mountain, show themselves the remains of a castle, supposedly the prison of a brother and sister centuries ago. Almost the entire top of the mountain near the towers is covered with huge boulders, which here and there arranged systematically, like Danish dolmens, mark the graves and are called by the people the graves of the Tartars. Having recognised at first sight that these are graves, I was surprised that our scholars visiting Liskiavsk did not mention them anywhere, considering them to be the remains of ruins.

Perhaps some Lithuanian kulagis or bajoras, battered in battles and in the defence of their family seats, covered with hundreds of scars, found a quiet rest in this delightful retreat of Lithuania, until the ancients stirred his ashes. The castle hill is adjoined by another, smaller hill, also located on the Nemunas River, on which there are the remains of the foundations of the original Liškov church, built here in the 15th century. Not long ago an ancient linden stood on the site. Farther in the valley lies the village of Liskiaków and a stream that moves a mill, at the entrance to the Nemunas. Above the village rises a hill again, and on it rises a beautiful church, modelled on the Roman basilica of St. Peter, built at the beginning of the last century by the Liskiava Dominicans.

Next to the church stands the building of the former monastery, surrounded by a fruit orchard, behind which a pine forest stretches and the Nemunas flow in a deep ravine, while on the sloping hillside olive trees rustle with wild pear trees. The Dominicans, to whose monastery Liskiaków belonged, tried to turn this village into a town and to increase trade they brought in Jews, for whom they secured all freedoms. This, however, did not bring the desired result at all; for the old Jewish population, not developing factories or crafts, but monopolising only the stall trade, works only for the benefit of their individuality, and the agricultural population in such villages usually comes to poverty very soon. This is also what happened to Liszków.

In 1796 the local Dominicans left Liskiava for other monasteries as a result of the Prussian government taking away their property. Forty years later, their deserted building was used to house the Demeritian priests, who were moved here again in 1849. In 1849 they were moved to the Swietokrzyskie Mountains and the monastery was given to the Liškov pastor. The beautiful church features four al fresco paintings depicting all the states of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the protection of the three Holy Trinity and the Mother of God.

Besides this Dominican, now parish church, there was in Liskiava until 1812 another old wooden parish church, which was demolished 30 years ago. The view of Liskiava given here is from the castle hill, and it is so beautiful in nature that it would not be missed even above Kenn. For me it seemed even more beautiful, because there is a part of the fragrance of the family flowers, the murmur of the family river, the singing of the Lithuanian lark, which cannot be replaced either by the Italian sky, the vine-dressed mountain or the Alpine waterfall.