Lithuania · Restored
Medininkai Castle
Medininkai Castle is a large rectangular medieval enclosure castle in the Vilnius district of Lithuania, built in the late 14th century and centered on a tall rectangular donjon. The site has high fieldstone-and-brick curtain walls enclosing an extensive grassy courtyard and later served varied residential and agricultural uses; it has been conserved and partly reconstructed and now houses a museum.
Its prime
1390
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1390
The shape it held in its prime.
Rectangular enclosure castle with long straight curtain walls of mixed fieldstone and red brick about 15 metres high and roughly 2 metres thick, enclosing a 1.8-hectare grassy yard. A dominant rectangular donjon c.30 metres tall occupies a corner with a crenellated parapet; four gate openings punctuate the walls. Service ranges of low red-tiled roofs run along the inner wall. The castle sits on level plain with a shallow scarp/ditch at the wall base and farmland beyond.
Its story
The story of Medininkai Castle.
Medininkai Castle, in the Vilnius district of eastern Lithuania, is the largest enclosure-type castle in the country — a defensive perimeter of 6.5 hectares, with walls 15 metres high and 2 metres thick around a courtyard of about 1.8 hectares, and a donjon of some 30 metres holding the residential quarters. The brick and stone castle was built in the late 14th century, likely by Grand Duke Algirdas, as a refuge for the local population during attacks by the Tatars and the Teutonic Knights.
In 1402 the castle was besieged and burnt down by the Teutonic Knights together with the future Grand Duke Švitrigaila, after which it fell into disuse as a defensive structure — though Grand Duke Vytautas the Great did not abandon it outright and visited several times. It later served as the summer residence of Casimir IV Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland.
The Medniki estate passed to the Goštautas family in the sixteenth century, later to the Ogiński family, and by the nineteenth century to the Drohojowskis. In July 1944 the Soviets held approximately 6,000 captured soldiers within the castle grounds after the liberation of Vilnius from German occupation. Conserved and partly reconstructed, the castle now houses a museum.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1390.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Medininkai Castle — including 2 interiors: gate passage through the curtain, upper residential chamber in the donjon. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Medininkai Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1390 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Medininkai Castle.
The families that held Medininkai Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Goštautas
The Medniki estate passed into the hands of the Goštautas family in the sixteenth century.
Ogiński
Held by the Ogiński family after the Goštautas.
Drohojowski
Property of the Drohojowski family in the nineteenth century.
