Royal Vilnius Love Stories Group Tour

Where did the future queen Barbara Radziwiłł live? Where did she secretly marry? Where did she walk to her secret dates with Sigismund Augustus? On this tour you will not only walk around the Lower Castle grounds and get to know the places where, almost 500 years ago, Lithuania’s most famous lovers, Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwiłł, met in secret, married and lived through all sorts of stories – you will also learn how the people of Vilnius lived at the time, what they created and made for the future king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund Augustus, which fabrics, gemstones and cosmetics the future queen Barbara Radziwiłł ordered and what she loved. You will touch, smell and taste what everyday life was like in Vilnius and for the famous couple. At the end of the tour you will find out how the site of Barbara Radziwiłł’s monument was secretly planned in Soviet times, and you will crown her image with the most wonderful crown in the city of Vilnius.

On the tour you will see about 20 different places connected with this story, and you will also get the chance to sit down – one of the stories will continue in one of the most romantic spots in the Old Town. During the tour you will learn about drinks whose recipes are based on the culinary history of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Perhaps you will even get to taste them… At the textile artists’ boutique “Balta balta” (Pilies g. 32), housed in Renaissance rooms, you will get to know the textiles of Renaissance Vilnius and learn what Barbara Radziwiłł loved, which beauty products she used, which of them were made in Vilnius at the time and what foreign and local merchants imported into the city.