Vilnius as a garden: where potatoes and mulberry trees bloomed

In 1536, on the grounds of the Lower Castle in Vilnius, south of the Palace of the Grand Dukes and the castle defensive wall, at the request of Queen Bona Sfaca, the Italian architect J. Hartulan laid out an Italian-style garden with avenues, flowerbeds, vegetable and spice beds, white marble sculptures, and ornate bridges. The garden was rectangular in plan and enclosed by a wall. Another garden was built in the time of Sigismund Augustus, next to the left bank of the Vilnia River – almost where the monument to King Mindaugas now stands. The garden had ponds, fountains, and an abundance of Italian vegetables, such as leeks, celery, spinach, artichokes, broccoli, green bean sprouts, etc. The scent of such herbs as basil, sage, and rosemary would have wafted through the air. Of course, they even tried to create a vineyard, but unfortunately, our climate is too harsh for grapes. In his memoirs, Anthony, a Franciscan Brother who visited Vilnius, admired the Italian garden and its cherry trees but lamented the lack of orange trees, paths, and walls.  

Sources tell us that a luxurious 17th-century Baroque garden existed on the south side of Castle Hill near the Palace of the Grand Dukes, but after the demolition of the Lower Castle, the garden also disappeared. 

At the end of the 19th century, the garden was destroyed. The appearance of Castle Hill and its foothills changed considerably; the hill was planted with greenery, and Castle Park, with its wide boulevard-type avenues, was added around it. In 1895, the ‘Executive Garden Commission’, which was established in 1895, drew up a project to improve the environment of the Castle and the Cathedral: 30 oaks, conifers, shrubs, and flowerbeds were planted, paths were laid, gazebos were constructed, the hill was surrounded by a fence, and gates and a dugout were built on the side of the Castle square. In 1899, the part of the park in front of Castle Street was renamed Pushkin Square, a monument to the poet was erected there, and the main avenue of the square was planted with chestnut trees.  Castle Park was merged with the Botanical Garden in the south-east. The square remained landscaped until 1937.

This is one of the nine Radziwiłł residences in Vilnius; it stood to the west of the Lower Castle, between the suburb of Pushkarnia and the River Neris, in the block between the present-day Žygimantų, Radvilų, and Tilto streets. The palace was the main residence of the Biržai-Dubingiai branch of the noble Radziwiłł family until the death of their last heiress, Ludwika Karolina Radziwiłł, at the end of the 17th century.

The palace was ornate, in the Italian Mannerist style, with a massive cylindrical tower in the southeast corner of the palace. It was surrounded on the east by an Italian-style garden and four ponds bordered by flower beds. The wooden conservatory contained fig trees, walnut trees, and even mulberry trees. According to sources, the Radziwiłł nobles were the first in Lithuania to grow mulberry trees. These exotic fruit trees were very expensive, and the destruction of a grafted tree was punishable by a fine equivalent to 12 cows or 24,000 cabbages. The vegetable garden was home to a wide variety of vegetables: artichokes, gooseberries, green beans, etc., but the most exotic vegetable was probably the potato. It is likely that it was not grown for food at the time but for its beautiful purple flowers. Later, exotic flowers were introduced in the conservatories. The Radziwiłł garden was separated from the Lower Castle by the old Vilnia River, over which Sigismund Augustus had built a covered bridge to use in the evenings when he visited Barbara Radziwiłł at her palace between 1542 and 1547. The grounds also included stables, a barn, a distillery, and other outbuildings. The whole estate was surrounded by defensive walls with towers in the corners and two gates.

In the 19th century, the ruins of the Radziwiłł Palace were finally demolished, and the surrounding garden disappeared, but the ponds remained for some time. The Tyszkiewicz (Tiškevičius) Palace, the garden and the ponds were built in their place (nowadays the Tiškevičius Palace). The garden and ponds were built on the territory of the Wroblewski Library (Vrublevskių Library) and the former Red Cross Hospital.

In the 14th and 16th centuries, the estate at the former confluence of the Vilnia and Kačerga rivers (now the Presidential Palace and Park) belonged to the noble Goštautas family, who owned not only a family palace but also a garden, which is marked on the schematic plan of Vilnius of 1390. In the 16th century, the property passed to the Bishops of Vilnius, who resided here until the end of the 18th century. It is known that the Bishops’ residence was surrounded by a magnificent Baroque garden. However, after the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the estate and all its assets were taken over by the Governor General of Vilnius. The existing palace was too small for the pomp and circumstance of the Russian administration, so it was rebuilt, and the Bishop’s Garden was reduced in size and transformed into a landscape garden, which was very popular at the time and combines features of French and English gardens. The project was designed by the architect Joseph Poussier. In 1840, the garden in front of the palace was redesigned, with a small garden in front of the building and the rest of the garden laid out in the Palace Square; a fountain was added later in the middle of it. The chestnut trees that grow next to what is now Simono Daukanto Square were planted in 1870.

Botanikos sodo istorija neatsiejama nuo universitete dirbusių profesorių veiklos. Jo istorija – tai tiek praeities epochų, istorinių įvykių, tiek ir gamtos mokslų plėtros atspindys.

Sodo įkūrėjas Žanas  Emanuelis Žilberas (Jean Emmanuel Gilibert) į Vilnių iš Gardino atvyko 1781 m. ir ėmėsi vadovauti ką tik įkurtai Gamtos istorijos katedrai bei įkūrė botanikos sodą, į kurį perkėlė daugumą augalų iš Gardine uždaryto botanikos sodo. Mokslininkas taip pat atsivežė savo biblioteką, labai vertingą herbarą, taip pat vaizdinių priemonių ir įrankių, pravertusių propaguojant botanikos mokslą. Lepesniems augalams buvo pastatytas šiltnamis, o kiti pasodinti maždaug 200 kv. m plote, apsodintame liepomis ir klevais. Manoma, kad jau pirmaisiais metais čia galėjo būti sukaupta maždaug dviejų tūkstančių rūšių augalų ir sėklų kolekcija.

Deja, po poros metų Ž. E. Žiliberas išvyko ir kelerius metus sodu rūpinosi J. Dž. A. Fiorsteris (Johann Georg Adam Förster), jis įdėjo daug pastangų, kad sodui būtų skirtas didesnis sklypas. 1787 m. išvykus ir šiam mokslinikui, sodą laikinai globojo medicinos profesoriai, kol 1792 m. pradėjęs dirbti medikas Ferdinandas Špicnagelis (Ferdinand Spitznagel) ėmėsi konkrečių darbų, kad sodas būtų perkeltas į dabartinį Bernardinų sodą (į kairę nuo centrinių vartų).

After reconstruction in 2013, a small exhibition was installed in the Bernardine Garden to the left of the central gate to mark the former Botanical Garden symbolically. In fact, the area had a different appearance in the 18th and 19th centuries: it was like an island surrounded by the old and new Vilnia riverbeds and the King’s Mill Canal. 

The first plot was purchased back in the days of Johann Georg Adam Förster; by 1815, the ensemble had been completely finished and fenced off. From 1797 onwards, the garden was created by Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł, and from 1825, his relative Józef Jundziłł.

In 1806, construction began of the Great Orangery (now on the site of the house at Barboros Radvilaitės g. 8), using as many as 40,000 bricks from the demolished Lower Castle. The low greenhouses were lined up in rows in front of the building. Three buildings became the highlight of the garden: the Great Orangery, the house of the Natural History Cathedral and the house on the right side of the River Vilnia.

The scientists who designed the garden followed the principles of Carl Linnaeus, which were very popular at the time: the whole area was divided into rectangular plots, planted with hedges, and plants planted in beds. The warmer climate plants are grown in different greenhouses: hot (15-19 °C), where tropical plants are kept all year round; warm (10-12 °C), where the so-called ‘aetiopes’ and succulents are kept; and cooler and more spacious conservatories (7.5 °C), where the plants are brought outdoors in summer and set up in a dedicated area. Trees have a protective function and are planted in a grid-like order, arranged like a chessboard. The purpose of the garden was educational.

The collection reached its peak in 1829 with almost 8,000 plant names.

The garden was decorated with canals and stylish gazebos, and bridges were built across the River Vilnia. Vilnius Botanical Garden was one of the richest in Europe at that time.

Unfortunately, it was not destined to last long. After the 1831 uprising, part of the territory became part of the Tsarist stronghold, and after the closure of Vilnius University, it became part of the Academy of Medicine and Surgery. In 1842, some of the plants were transferred to the Universities of Tartu and Kyiv, and the trees were left to their fate. Eventually, the Botanical Garden, which had once flourished, disappeared.

The Bernardine Garden has been the site of forests that were considered sacred in pagan times. When Casimir Jogailaitis invited the Bernardine brothers to Vilnius in 1469, they were given a plot of land southeast of Castle Hill on which to settle: in front of the Three Crosses and the Bekes Hills, on the bend of the River Vilnia, near the Royal Mill (which stood on the site of the current tennis courts), just south of Sereikiškės.

Over time, the Bernardines were given a plot of land for a house of worship and a kitchen garden. In the early 16th century, the Bernardines built the churches of St. Anne, St. Francis, and St. Bernard, as well as a monastery complex; they also turned the marshy area into a cultivated garden with ponds, canals, and fertile vegetable gardens, created an apiary for beekeeping, and kept a meadery for brewing mead.

The old Vilnia River flowed through the site of the park’s present-day central avenue and gateway (the present-day Barboros Radvilaitės Street), dividing the park in half. It was only in the second half of the 19th century that the river was filled in, and the area changed.

Monastery gardens were traditionally enclosed; part of the garden was used for farming and the rest for recreation. The situation changed in 1864 when the monastery was closed down by order of Governor-General Muravjov. As a result, all the property was transferred to the State Treasury – the monastery was used as military barracks, and the garden was designated as the Governor-General’s summer residence (later, this area became the first public garden in Vilnius).

In 1869–1870, a new street, the present Maironio Street, was built through the churchyard and gardens of the monastery and the territory of the old Bernardine cemetery. The monastery’s gardens, conservatories, a wax workshop, and greenhouses became the first public urban garden in Vilnius. Initially, allotments were rented out to private individuals to grow vegetables. Between 1870 and 1872, the architect of the governorate, Nikolay Chagin, drew up a project for the merger of three city gardens – the Botanical, the Bernardine, and the Veršynu garden by the cathedral – into one park.

Šios teritorijos istorija prasideda nuo LDK didikų Sanguškų giminės, kai 1640 m. Jeronimas Sanguška ant kalvos pradėjo statyti rūmus ir suplanavo parką su centrine parterine dalimi, sodais ir tvenkiniais. Teritorija paveldėjo misionierių vardą, kai 1686 m. rūmų kompleksą ir parką ėmė valdyti Misionierių ordino vienuoliai. 

Misionierių sodai su baroko stiliaus pastatų ansambliu įkurti XVIII a. vid. Priešais vienuolyną buvęs nedidelis angliškas sodas pasivaikščiojimams. Iš čia vedė takas į apatinę terasą ir palivarką. Taip pat šiame sode buvo daržai, žuvų pilni tvenkiniai ir du šaltiniai. Minima medinė pašiūrė – vaško lydykla. XIX a. Misionierių sodo aprašyme paminimos 9 rūšys ten augusių medžių: klevai, liepos, dviejų rūšių tuopos, beržai, drebulės, gluosniai, šermukšniai ir alyvos. Pažymima, kad palei tvoras augo trys eilės agrastų. Pirmame ir antrame vaisių soduose augo obelys, kriaušės, slyvos, vyšnios, įvairūs vaiskrūmiai. Sode buvo 115 obelų, 125 kriaušės, 22 slyvos ir 13 vyšnių. Tarp medžių buvo auginamos daržovės. Jame taip pat augo dviejų rūšių tuopos, kleviniai medžiai, Sibiro žirnių krūmai. Šie sodai buvo aptverti tvoromis, šalia buvo daug įvairios paskirties ūkinių statinių. Antrasis vaismedžių sodas ribojosi su vizitiečių sodais ir buvo atitvertas mūrine tvora. Amžininkai rašė, kad misionierių sodai patys gražiausi Vilniaus mieste.

Teritorijoje buvo hidrotechninių įrenginių, veikė tvenkinių persipylimo sistema. Misionieriai valdė vandens šaltinius, kuriuos buvo pritaikę sau ir nuomodavo miesto reikmėms. Istorinėje rašytinėje medžiagoje minima sodo teritorijoje buvus 9 skirtingus šulinius.

Anksčiau visa žalia teritorija buvo vientisa, bet 1952 m. nutiesta Maironio gatvė padalijo teritoriją į dvi dalis: Išganytojo kalno šlaitą ir teritoriją už kelio, vadinamą Kūdrų parku.

1811 m. už Rūdninkų vartų, sklype tarp dabartinių Sodų ir Šv. Stepono gatvių, advokatas ir sodininkas Juozapas Strumila (Józef Strumiłło) įsteigė sodą, gėlynus, pastatė šiltnamių, visas kompleksas, kaip manoma, nusidriekė iki pat Šv. Stepono bažnyčios. Šis sodas buvo ne tik vienas iš didžiausių, bet ir pažangiausių, moksliškai tvarkomų sodų to meto Vilniuje. J. Strumila savo sode augino vaismedžius, sodinukus, gėles, prieskoninius augalus, vaistažoles. Čia klestėjo prekyba gėlių sėklomis, sodinukais ir svogūnėliais. Ir, žinoma, jokia miesto šventė (šokių salės, salonai ir valgomieji), kaip ir nė viena Vilniaus ponia, neapsieidavo be gyvų gėlių puošmenų, pirktų iš J. Strumilos šiltnamių. Žiemą damos ypač mėgo dabinti savo plaukus ar pobūvių sukneles rožėmis, kamelijomis ir kitomis gyvomis gėlėmis.

Savo patirtimi J. Strumila pasidalijo 1820 m. išleistoje knygoje „Šiaurės sodai“, kurioje  supažindino su dvaro sodybų planavimu ir tinkamu želdinių parinkimu. Ji tapo tikru to meto bestseleriu ir XIX a. sulaukė net aštuonių leidimų. 

Sodų ir Gėlių gatvių pavadinimai atsirado XIX a. pab., taip įamžinant kadaise čia vešėjusius sodus ir gėlynus.