The Vilnius Castle Complex includes the Upper Castle, the Royal Palace, the arsenals and the cathedral. A wooden castle stood around the 10th century, and stone walls date from about the 13th century. Gediminas made Vilnius his capital, and Vytautas the Great rebuilt the Upper Castle after a fire in 1419, finishing in 1422. It is Gothic, while the 16th-century palace remodel was Renaissance, with early Baroque work in the 17th century. Bartolomeo Berrecci probably planned the palace, and Laurynas Gucevičius redesigned the cathedral in neoclassical style in 1783.
The Teutonic Order attacked repeatedly between 1365 and 1402, and the Crooked Castle burned in 1390 and was never rebuilt. The Royal Palace was abandoned for about 150 years and almost fully demolished by the early 19th century.
Gediminas Tower is the main surviving structure and a national symbol, with a lift since 2003. UNESCO listed the site in 1994.
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