Medininkai

Medininkai (Polish: Miedniki Królewskie; Belarusian: Меднікі; Russian: Ме́дники, old Russian: Мьдники) is a village in Lithuania. In terms of administration, it is centre to the Medininkai Eldership, which forms part of the Vilnius District Municipality; the district itself is in turn part of the Vilnius County. Beginnings of the village are related to the 14th century. The local castle was among the key ones in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; in 1387, upon christening of the country, the grand duke Jogaila founded one of the first 7 churches here. Medininkai enjoyed its golden era in the late 15th century. In the early modern period the settlement reached the status of a town, but it failed to develop into a major urban centre. Over time the place was losing importance, and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries it was reduced to a village. The area has retained its traditionally rural character, though during recent decades it started to host transport and spedition businesses, related to the nearby Lithuania-Belarus border crossing at the Vilnius-Minsk highway. Since the early 21st century Medininkai is home to a major compound which educates border-control officials. The place enjoys some appeal among tourists; visitors are attracted by ruins of the castle, now turned into a museum, and the highest natural point in Lithuania, named Aukštojas. The village and the eldership are populated mostly by members of the Polish national minority.

Beginnings of Medininkai are related to a fortress. According to some historians it might have been built already in the late 13th century, during the era of duke Traidenis; it was either him or one of minor local dukes who initiated the construction. An unclear and not necessarily reliable chronicle points rather to the early 14th century, i.e. the times of the grand duke Gedyminas. The most popular theory claims that the stronghold was built in the mid-14th century on orders of the grand duke Algirdas. It was located at the major Ashmyany route, though its exact role remains uncertain. Historiographic accounts from the 19th century, rooted in a somewhat loose interpretation of sources, advanced the theory that Algirdas and his wife were frequent visitors to the place. However, the first scientifically accepted note on the fortress is related to the year of 1385, when it was conquered by troops of the Teutonic Order, led by the grand master Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein.

In 1387 the grand duke Jogaila abandoned paganism and adopted the Roman Catholic faith, which is usually considered as the christening of Lithuania. In an accompanying act he set up and endowed 7 churches, among them the one in Medininkai. According to historians it demonstrates that there was already some sort of settlement beyond the castle walls existent at the time. It proves also that Medininkai was among key points in the state infrastructure. The church has indeed been constructed. In 1391 Jogaila subordinated the shrine to the newly erected Bystritsa parish, where he set up the monastery of Canons of Penitence; it is most likely they who delivered religious service in the Medininkai church. The year of 1398 brings the first information about a representative of the grand duke and his powers in Medininkai; he is mentioned as a certain "Careybo" (Korejwo, Korejko). His rule was rather shaky, though; in 1402 another raid of Teutonic Order knights, this time commanded by Wilhelm von Helfenstein, seized and burnt the stronghold.

Since the early 15th century the rule of Lithuanian grand dukes became more stable, and the Medininkai fortress was gradually gaining importance. The grand duke Vytautas visited it a number of times, e.g. in 1415 it was there that he was writing a letter to master of the Teutonic Order, and when referring his 1426 stay a medieval chronicle notes "unsere husse Medniki". Most likely at the time the stronghold underwent major upgrade, and a previous earth-wooden structure was replaced with stone-and-brick walls with towers and bastions. In the first half of the 15th century, it was probably the largest construction of this type in Lithuania, by far larger even than the castle compound in Vilnius; its walls of 560 metres length embraced the internal yard of some 2 ha. It was then that the Medininkai boyars formed a separate military unit, named “chorągiew miednicka”; Jan Długosz noted its taking part during the Battle of Grunwald, and 4 of its commanders are known by name for the period until the mid-16th century.

The scale and character of the settlement behind the castle walls are not clear. At unspecified time a parish has been erected in Medininkai; in the mid-15th century the local church is referred to as a parish church and it is known that it operated a school for children. As the Catholic infrastructure in Lithuania was being gradually developed, the Medininkai church became one of 27 churches in the Vilnius diocese. Starting with a certain Gleb Andreevitsch, named in the document of 1453, there are 13 boyars listed as representatives of the grand duke until the mid-16th century; they were named "palatinus", "praefectus", "castellanus", or "tivunus". Usually they were holding tenures of land estates located around the castle and the settlement, though the estates remained the property of grand dukes. Feudal tenants are listed since the mid-15th century; it is known that there were 40 such tenures in the entire Vilnius voivodship.

The second half of the 15th century marks Medininkai's golden era, the period when the place enjoyed the most prestigious status. During long strings the grand duke and the king of Poland Casimir resided in the castle “to breathe better air”; he was accompanied by his sons, especially the princes Casimir, Jan and Alexander. Their preceptor and mentor, who spent long months if not years in the castle, was Jan Długosz, a monumental figure in Polish medieval historiography. Following the death of Prince Casimir, who died already considered a quasi-saint in Lithuania, in 1484 his remnants were buried in the castle, though not clear whether in the walls or in a purpose-built sepulchral crypt; they would remain there during the following over 150 years. The place played also important ceremonial roles, e.g. in 1494 the Muscovite legacy which accompanied princess Helena, fiancé of grand duke Alexander travelling from Moscow to Vilnius, were pompously met by Lithuanian representatives in Medininkai.

The exact status of the settlement remains unclear. Some scholars claim that in the 15th century Medininkai was formally granted a borough charter, and few authors even point to the year of 1486 as the date, but details remain unknown and the reliability of this claim is disputed. Late medieval chronicles mention the place as "oppidum", which points to the castle and its military role rather than to a settlement of urban features. There is no source information on usual medieval urban self-governing bodies, like a town council or municipal judicature. It is known, though, that as the town was located on a major trade route, it was of fundamental financial importance for the dukes; a document from 1486 confirms that two inns in Medininkai were producing major gains both for the tenants and for the grand dukes. The first information on Tatars having been settled near the castle comes from the year of 1488; they inhabited the hamlet of Kurhany/Pilkapiai, later to become part of Medininkai.

The Lithuanian-Muscovite war, which broke out in 1512, produced enemy incursions deep into central Lithuania. The imperial envoy Sigmund von Herberstein when coming back from Moscow in 1517 noted that he saw the Medininkai castle devastated; it is not clear whether this was the result of Muscovite troops having seized and routed the fortress or another cause, e.g. an accidental fire. None of the sources consulted mentioned that the castle performed any military role afterwards and it seems it was being gradually abandoned. Though at that time city walls were being built around Vilnius, there is no information about city walls being built around Medininkai. The local military unit continued to operate as a separate formation, e.g. on periodical review of local nobility of 1528 the boyars from the area were supposed to produce 138-men-strong cavalry detachment (out of nobility-raised 19,842 cavalry for the entire Grand Duchy); it was only in the 1560s that "chorąstwo miednickie" was incorporated into a unit raised in the entire Vilnius county, of which Medininkai formed part.