Lithuanian National Museum May 6 will invite visitors to its new department - the House of Stories, located near the center of Vilnius, in the building numbered 3 on Tado Kosciuška street. House of stories – is an exhibition space where history is presented not only as a fixed past, but also as a reality that we all reflect on and are still creating. Before opening the doors, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the history of the building, which was compiled from archival data by the art historian of the Lithuanian National Museum doc. Dr. Birutė Vitkauskienė and Mr. museum curator Jūratė Gudaitė.
As Birutė Vitkauskienė tells, the lists of residents of Vilnius city from the second half of the 1356th century indicate that land holdings with plots (possession no. 1357 and 3) are now located at Tado Kosciuškos st. XNUMX, belonged to the LDK army general, Brasta castellan Jonas Antanas Horaini, later - to his son Jonas Nepomukas Horaini, Vilnius court official (chamberlain). These owners had karchiam, brick and wooden residential and farm buildings here.
At the beginning of the 1831th century, when Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire, the above-mentioned estates were already nationalized and after the 1 uprising were transferred to the needs of a military fortress. Since the estates were located behind the fortress embankment, which crossed the current T. Kosciuszka Street at the building numbered XNUMX, all buildings in them, except for the old brick tavern, were demolished. Because, according to the law in force in the Russian Empire, it was forbidden to build structures in front of the ramparts of military fortresses at a distance of several hundred meters.
XNUMXth century in the first half, the then Antakalnis Street (now T. Kosciuškos) was distributed, managed, and the ditched area was planned and compared. The width of the street was adapted for marching troops.
For a long time nothing was built in this place. But after 1878 After the decree of the Russian Tsar to destroy the military fortress established in Vilnius began, and after the establishment of a hard labor prison in the Sluski Palace, the need arose to build new barracks. They arose around 1880. and were named Holy Trinity Barracks (Troitki barracks). The architecture and roof covering typical of the style of Russian military complexes strongly resembled the buildings of the Daugavpils fortress. Most likely, these hulls were designed by the military engineers of Daugavpils Military District, to which Vilnius was assigned.
The military purpose of the building complex did not change either between the wars or during the Second World War, when it was occupied by German soldiers. From the currently available data, it is only known that approximately until 1950 these buildings still belonged to the military service.
It is not known exactly when T. Kosciuškas st. The complex of buildings located at 3 belonged to the Executive Committee of the city of Vilnius and it was decided to establish a boarding school here. During the Soviet years, the entire territory was surrounded by a brick fence and a new neo-baroque gate was built. Both pylons of the gate were crowned with cement balls. After entering the gate, the first building of the former barracks (now the House of Stories) housed students' living rooms, and the second building further on (now the Department of Ethnic Culture and Anthropology Collections and Exhibit Storage) housed the school. There were more residential and farm buildings in the area.
Before 1990 the boarding school was moved out, building reconstruction works were started, which took five years. in 1995 January 25 the unrepaired, abandoned buildings of the former barracks and the entire complex were handed over to the National Museum of Lithuania by order of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
It took a little more than ten years to reconstruct the building and adapt it to museum activities meeting the highest standards, so that international exhibitions could also be held here. The story house is already furnished and will soon open its doors to visitors.
