Lida Castle

Lida Castle

The stone castle in Lida was built by order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Russia and Zhmoyt Gediminas (1316-41). The castle was built in 1323-1328 by the prisoners from Volyn and Kiev. In 1323, Gediminas sent Pope John XXII a letter in which he expressed his readiness to adopt Christianity for the price of peace with the crusaders. The pope banned the crusaders from campaigning on the Lithuanian principality; a four-year truce was concluded. In 1325, Gedimin married his daughter Aldona to Kasimir, the son of the Polish king Vladislav Loket. In 1326, Lithuanian ambassadors made peace with Novgorod. In conditions of peace with surrounding neighbors, Prince Gediminas built a castle in Lida.
The castle partially fulfilled its purpose: it helped to fight off an attack by a detachment of Smolensk Prince Yuri Svyatoslavovich (05.08.1440), protected from the troops of Prince Svidrigailo in August 1433, but surrendered without a fight to the crusaders in January 1392 and the army of Ivan Khovansky in December 1659. After 1659 the castle was not used for defensive purposes.
The castle was the place of events of great significance. Here, in 1386, Polotsk Prince Skirgailo took the oath to the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Jagaila. In 1422, the famous wedding feast of King Vladislav Yagaila and Princess Sophia Golshanskaya was held in the castle. In July 1506, King Alexander signed a death will in the presence of the Lithuanian magnates and his wife Elena Ivanovna, the daughter of the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan III. From here the gentry militia left for the victorious Kletskaya battle.
In the twentieth century in the ruins of the castle were the place where they showed films, made a rink, held services and organized sports competitions. In July 1941, Soviet war prisoners were kept in the castle. After the war, the castle courtyard was used as a sports stadium. Since 2004 it has been a tourist attraction.