Krevo Castle

The castle was built in the 14^th century as a residence of the Duke and as a fortress. It was a part of chain fortresses that formed the defensive line against the Crusaders. In Lida, Grodno, Novogrudok, Krevo, Medniki, Vilno and Troki new types of structures were being built. They were small stone castles: one or two towers built on dam in marsh areas. Krevo castle takes the shape of an irregular quadrangle. The length of its sides varies from 71 meters to 108 meters. The thikness of walls is 2.5-3 meters, height: 13 meters. The main building material used was boulders. Two towers, the Duke’s and the Small, are placed diagonally. Another place in Belarus where this type of castle adopted from the Crusaders is Lida.

Krevo Castle was unfortunate. At the beginning of the 15^th century it was captured several times by Crimean Tatars and Moscow troops. Despite this and because of the strategic position of the township, in 1563 Krevo was chosen as a gathering place for the Great Lithuanian Principality’s militia. After the castle’s destruction in the middle of the 17^th century there was virtually no information on the township. Only in the 18^th century did it re-emerge as a trade town.

Krevo

Krevo is situated in 10 km from Boruny. Once it was a place where the destiny of whole Great Lithuanian Principality was decided, and epoch-making events for Polish, Belarussian and Lithuanian nations took place.

The place’s name is usually connected to term “krevo-kreveito” a title of a Lithuanian pagan prophet. According to the historian M.Ermolovich the township got his name during its colonization by the Slavonic tribe Krivichi. In as far back as the 13^th century Krevo was mentioned in German chronicles as one of the centres of the legendary Golshany Principality. In 1338 Great Duke Gedimin, when dividing his land between his sons Keistuit and Olgerd gave Krevo Castle to Olgerd. Sicnce that time small town has been known as the centre of an appanage principality. Olgerd lived here untilhe was crowned leader of the Great Lithuanian Principality in 1341. He handed over the appanage to his son Yagailo, Duke of Vitebsk and Krevo.

After Olgerd's death in 1377, his brother Keistut completed with Yagailo for the throne og the GLP. Using his authority in 1381 Keistut actually managed to take the throne away from his nephew, but only until the appearance of the Crusaders. German knights helped Yagailo to defeat Keistut. The last defenders of pagan Lithuania were utterly crushed.

According to one version, Duke Keistut was strangled in Krevo Castle tower. The same fate was also prepared for his son Vitovt. Through a housemaid of his second wife Anna, the son was able to get in touch with his loyal friends who helped him to escape. Vitovt, disguised as a housemaid, slid along the side gallery of the castle’s walls to a defensive ditch where his brothers-in-arms were already waiting. As sworn enemies cousins Vitovt and Yagailo should have prepared for an irreconcilable struggle but fate ordered differently.

In 1385 Polish ambassadors arrived to Krevo Castle proposing Yagailo to marry the Princess Yadviga from the Pyasts dynasty and thus to become the Polish King. The union of the two nations became known in history as the Krevo Union of 1385. As the result Yagailo became head of two states, and took the name Vladislav II.