The article credits Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, as one of several citadels against the Teutonic Knights, and dates the boulder walls to 1323 to 1325. Both claims carry citation-needed tags. It names no architect and calls the style only medieval. The walls were later faced with red brick.
The castle has two angle towers, whose upper stories were once inhabited, and reconstructed sections reach 39 feet (12 m). A church inside the walls moved outside them in 1533. The Swedish occupation of the Great Northern War blew up both towers. After an 1891 city fire, the southwestern tower and part of the west wall were demolished for stone.
Restoration began in 1982, with significant work in 2010. An annual medieval-style tournament is held there, and a museum is being created in its towers.
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