Sculpture „Žygimantas ir Barbora“
Before you stands the sculptural composition “Sigismund and Barbara”. It commemorates the legendary love story of King Sigismund Augustus and Princess Barbara Radziwiłł. To this day, their romance remains one of the most vivid and moving elements in the history of the Lithuanian capital.
The story began with the young couple’s meeting in 1544. In July 1547, Sigismund secretly married Barbara. Their marriage was immortalized in 1548 by the humanist Stanisław Koszucki, who served the Radziwiłł family:
I thus invite you to begin the wedding feast with joy,
For it befits the new bridegroom, and you as well, honoured lords,
Since Christ Himself has ordained this wedding,
Rejoice, and banish heavy sorrow from your hearts,
The time has come for merriment and joy!
The love and marriage of Sigismund and Barbara were put to severe trials. Once these trials had been overcome, Barbara was crowned Queen of Poland in Cracow on 7 December 1550. Unfortunately, she succumbed to a grave illness soon afterward and died on 8 May 1551. Sigismund affirmed the depth of his love for his wife one last time. Honouring her final wish, he personally accompanied her coffin on its journey to the Lithuanian capital. In the early seventeenth century, another Radziwiłł secretary and humanist, Salomon Rysiński, described the king’s mourning in these words:
Barbara would by no means consent to be buried in Cracow – whether because she most earnestly wished to find her eternal rest in the land of her birth, or because she did not wish to leave her bones in the keeping of a hostile country. Fulfilling the wishes of the deceased, on 15 May the king ordered the funeral cortege to depart from Cracow for Vilnius. Throughout the entire journey, he never left the coffin’s side, following it in mourning every step of the way. Whenever the procession passed through a village or town, he would leave the road, dismount from his horse, and accompany the coffin on foot. Neither torrential rain nor any other hardship sent by the heavens could dissuade him from this resolve. When they finally reached Vilnius, the king saw to it that the late queen’s body, adorned with numerous royal insignia, was laid to rest in the Chapel of the Ancestors at St Stanislaus Cathedral. Thus, just as King Sigismund Augustus of Poland had surrounded Barbara with extraordinary devotion during her lifetime, he bade her farewell after her death with remarkable reverence, to the astonishment of all who witnessed it.
Queen Barbara rests in Vilnius Cathedral to this day.
The monument to Sigismund and Barbara stands in a place of particular historical significance – in the courtyard of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. The library was built adjacent to the site of the Radziwiłł Palace, which had stood here in the sixteenth century. Nearby are the Lower Castle and the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
According to legend, Sigismund Augustus ordered a bridge to be built across the River Vilnia at this very spot so that he could secretly visit his beloved at the Radziwiłł Palace. Today, the Vilnia flows along a different course, and only the palace foundations remain, yet the legend lives on.
The Library helps keep this story alive. Its collections include numerous publications from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century that recount and commemorate the love of the last Jagiellonian king and Barbara Radziwiłł. This sculptural composition invites visitors to discover these works and to become part of the enduring legend of Vilnius.
Sculptor: Gediminas Piekuras, architect: Aušra Gvildienė
Sponsors: Augustinas, Dominykas and Kristijonas Vizbaras
Project initiated and supported by the community of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences