With its gate tower and keep forming a typical enclosed castle with a courtyard at the centre, Norviliškės Castle, or Norviliškės Monastery, is a good example of 16th-century fortified Renaissance architecture. The castle is located in the southeasternmost part of Lithuania, in the Dieveniškės Loop, and is surrounded just over a few hundred metres away on three sides by the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, or, in other words, the external border of the European Union.
The castle was built in the 16th century as a home for Vaitiekus Šorcas, a rich merchant from Marienburg, and his wife Countess Darata Zienovičiūtė-Šorcienė. After she was widowed, she invited the Franciscan ‘little brothers’ from Vilnius to the area in order to encourage the Catholic faith, and made over to them the Norviliškės estate, with its manor house and farm buildings, crops and livestock, gardens and meadows, forests and other land, by a founding act signed in 1617. In this way, Norviliškės Castle became a friary, and a church was built in the courtyard of the estate.
The monks remained at Norviliškės until 1832, when Poland and Lithuania broke away from the Russian Empire. After the suppression of the uprising, the estate was taken over by the Russian government. The monastery and the church were closed down, the friars were transferred to the Franciscan friary in Novgorod, and the wooden church was dismantled and a church was built from its logs in Alšėnai (Belarus). The old friary buildings and the adjacent quarters were turned into a barracks, and soldiers remained there until the early 20th century. In 1904, after the army moved out, a girls’ school opened in the castle, and it continued to operate there until the First World War.
After the war, Norviliškės Castle was abandoned, and its condition slowly deteriorated, until the 21st century, when it was restored and opened as a hotel and restaurant. Those who order in advance can not only taste Medieval dishes, but can also learn about Medieval eating habits, the history of the castle, and many other things, all told by a local ‘monk’.
Some practical information:
You should always have your identity documents when going to the Dieveniškės Loop, as you will have to pass a border post where you might be asked to show them.
To visit Norviliškės Castle, you must register in advance.
This article is a part of a project implemented within the framework of the Innovation of Tourism Services and Products Program, with funding from the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology, and from funds allocated by the Ministry of Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania.
