Location: The first mention of Braslau Castle dates back to 1065 in the epic part of the “Bychowiec Chronicle”, which describes the attack of the mythical Lithuanian dukes Kernus and Gimbut on the Russian city of Braslau. Archaeology confirms that the city was found on Castle Hill by the Polochans. This is a natural elevation between the lakes Dryvyaty and Navyata. Here, between the lakes, there was a settlement (“pasad”). The name of the city most likely comes from the Latvian word “brasla” – the shallow of the river, or, according to the legend, from the Polatsk duke Brachyslav. Nearby, in the modern Maskavichy, up until the 12th century, there was a colony of Varangians. Braslau had a tiny Slavic-Latgalian population and was the western outpost of the Polatsk principality on the border with the Baltic tribes: Aukštaitians, Selonians and Latgalians, and later with the Livonian Order. The river Druyka, which flows into the Dzvina, flows from the Braslau Lakes. Throughout the Middle Ages, there was a brisk trade from the east and Ruthenia towards Vilnius and Königsberg. It is very possible that F. Skaryna traveled to Königsberg and back via this route.
Braslau in Skaryna’s times
Braslau became a grand – ducal estate of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Giedymin bequeathed it to his son Jaunutis. Later, during the era of the elective kings, its owners were Skumin-Tyshkevichs, Sapiehas, Masalskiyas. The city was an important fortress during the civil war between Svidrygaila and Sigismund Kestutaitis. The army of the Grand Principality of Rus’ joined the allied Livonian Crusaders (1434) and Tatars (1435) in Braslau.
On the 8th of October 1500, during his stay in Braslau, the Grand Duke Alexander gave the city the privilege of the Magdeburg Law (partial), which was confirmed several times. Since 1506, following the death of the Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon, the city belonged to his wife Helena, who settled in Braslau. Helena founded a female Orthodox monastery on Castle Hill, where she died in 1513. A monastery on the island of Lake Nespish (at first, orthodox, later – Uniate) had been open in Braslau since 1500. In 1517, S. Herberstein passed through Braslau, noting the location of the city near a huge lake. On the 1579 map of Polatsk land by S. Pakhalavitski, Braslau is depicted as a settlement on the island.
According to the description from 1554, the city had 5 streets and 110 houses, of which 65 were located on Vyalikaya Street (now Leninskaya Str.). About a thousand inhabitants were engaged mainly in agriculture and fishing, trade and crafts. A team of builders from Braslau took part in the construction of the Polatsk Castle under the voivode of Polatsk Yan Hlyabovich in the 1530s. On the same street, there was a church, a hospital, and the estate of the princes Masalskiya. There was also a monastery and 40 taverns.
Braslau Castle
The Braslau Castle was first mentioned in 1514. Its appearance of those days resembles, to some extent, the image from the 1613 map by T. Makowski. In 1649, the inventory of Braslau contained a detailed description of the castle: 7 towers, a gate with double gates, a tower above the gate with 2 loopholes-machicolations, and many outbuildings on the settlement: a bakery, a stable, a prison, a kitchen, barns and others. There were 120 houses in the city at that time.
Since 1566, Braslau had been the centre of the county of the Vilnius voivodeship. County councils (Lith. “seimeliai”) met on Castle Hill, where, according to the decision of the Seimas of 1590, there was a house for court hearings and archives. The coat of arms of Braslau in the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was “Pahonia”. On the 2nd of June 1792, due to the privilege of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski, the city also received the symbol of the Masonic origin, the “Eye of Providence” – the image of a human eye in a triangle against the sun.