THE BUILDING OF LUCKY FATE
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| Mizgiris’ had been
lucky to buy the 8th building of St. Mykolo street for their amber museum in 1995. As was
discovered later, the building has connections with the early 15th century. When restorer Aldona Shvabauskiene did the architectural investigation a lot of interesting showed up. Baroque building has preserved architectural survivals from Renaissance and Classicism. In the end of 18th century it was enlarged and connected with the gothic building which layed inside the courtyard. Since Classicism there were no important reconstructions, the original wall ornaments were found here.
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| While unearthing the
cellars of the building the fate gave to mizgiris’ a big surprise: in the unearthed
cellars two authentic kilns were found. These kilns were used in the end of 15th
century for burning ceramics. Furthermore a large number of works were found as well. It
was mostly tiles, which are exhibited now, but you can also see some pottery there. Due to
the lack of the place only a small quantity of found ceramics is displayed. But
Mizgiris’ plan to enlarge the exposition and show all archeological items. When you go into the building Amber museum-gallery from the street, you actually descend 70 cm below the nowadays street level – into the street level of 17th century. If you want to go to the basement of the building where the Amber museum lies, you have to descend another 3 meters – to the street level of 14th-15th century. At this level the very first citizens of Vilnius lived. This is a very unique archeological find, as a workshop was found together with the works in one place. Archeologists found very similar ceramic samples in the lower castle. It gives an idea that in this place worked highly-skilled artisans.
Archeological works continued for three years and were over on 27th of March in 1998, when the first visitors stepped in.
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| COPYRIGHT 2000 (C) Matas Mizgiris |  |