Exhibition “Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1561–1795)”
From 2 February new exhibition is on display at Brīvības bulvāris 32 – “Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1561–1795).”
The history of the two related peoples – Latvians and Lithuanians – had many things in common but also many differences. In the Middle Ages, the territory of modern Latvia and Estonia came under the rule of the Catholic Church, creating Livonia – a new territorial structure with several centres of power, the strongest of which was the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order. Lithuanians, on the other hand, managed to establish their own state in the 13th century and successfully resisted the Teutonic Knights. A dynastic marriage at the end of the 14th century led to closer cooperation between Lithuania and Poland, which resulted in the foundation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Lublin in 1569.
Livonia, unlike Lithuania, failed to establish a strong centralised power. The Reformation and the Muscovite invasions in the mid-16th century led to the collapse of Livonia and the emergence of new secular states. The last master of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, Gotthard Kettler, became the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia. In 1561, Kettler signed the Treaty of Submission (Pacta subiectionis) with Sigismund II Augustus, the ruler of Poland and Lithuania, who accepted Livonian submission as the Grand Duke of Lithuania. With the establishment of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, former enemies became members of a single political community, albeit with different status and organisation of power.
In the following centuries, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania developed points of contact in various fields that left traces in the cultural environment of both countries. The exhibition introduces to some of these points of contact, looking at the formation of the border, political and economic relations, the influence of the Courland nobility on life in the borderlands, and the peculiarities of church organisation.
The exhibition features original items from the National History Museum of Latvia, the Šiauliai “Aušros” Museum, the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, the Vytautas the Great War Museum, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and Pakruojis Regional Museum “Žiemgala”. In total, twenty-eight heritage institutions and individuals from six countries have contributed material to the exhibition.
The exhibition is opened every day except Mondays until 31 May, 2024.
