VILNIUS BASTION FORTIFICATIONS IN 17TH – 18TH CENTURY

Summary

In 1648 the modernization of defensive system of Vilnius town had been started. Preparing for a war with Moscow, it was planed to ring the capital of Great Duchy of Lithuania with bastion fortifications. The best source to reconstruct new concept of defense is 1737 plan of Vilnius. The facts states that Vilnius was surrounded by two lines of defensive fortifications. The first line was equipped opposite the defensive town wall and served as reinforcement of this complex. In the second half of 17th and in the beginning of 18th centuries these bastion fortifications were urbanized – they were divided into plots. Their relations are not clear with former additional fortifications of defensive wall. The second line (the ring) of bastion fortifications were equipped distantly the center of town. This line surrounded the territories of suburbia and access to the castles. Hypothetically we suppose the second defensive ring at least repeated the configuration of former defensive control system. In the second half of 17th century equipped the second line of bastion fortifications could differ from depicted one in 1737 plan of Vilnius. Supposedly, Vilnius was planed to ring by solid fortification of bastions. It is certainly true that till attacking the town by Moscow army the works was not finished. Hypothetical sections have been attempted to reconstruct by mapping burial grounds with massive graves of the middle of the 17th and 18th centuries. The fact states that people were massively buried in the surrounding of unusable or unequipped fortifications. The burial sites of victims of war and epidemic in the surrounding of fortification could influence the establishment of town graveyards at the end of 18th century till the beginning of the 20th century. The ramparts were reconstructed in 18th century. Single fortifications were located and in open sites out of town. It is essential for further research and safeguarding of bastion fortifications as intellective development of Polish–Lithuanian state.