Navahrudak Castle was one of the strongholds of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The article gives no founder, architect or overall construction date. A stone tower stood by the 14th century and resembled the Tower of Kamyanyets, and Vytautas the Great later added four stone towers. Other fortifications were timber. The 17th-century main castle had seven towers.
The Teutonic Knights under Heinrich von Plötzke attacked in 1314 and failed, though they badly damaged the tower. Crimean Tatars besieged it in the 16th century, Russian forces occupied it twice between 1654 and 1667, and the Swedes sacked it in 1706. Preservation efforts began in the 1920s, and a partial reconstruction took place around 2018 to 2020.
The 16th-century historian Stryjkowski claimed Mindaugas was crowned and buried here, but Lithuanian historians say there is no evidence and call it a conjecture. The site hosts medieval reenactments and jousting.

Comments