Zwischen Stadtreparatur und nationaler Selbstbehauptung: die Rekonstruktion des Großfürstlichen Palasts in Vilnius und des Schwarzhäupterhauses in Riga

ENComparison of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius (rebuilt in the 2010s) and the House of the Blackheads in Riga (named after a medieval guild and restored from 1996 to 1999) is justified by their locations in the centres of two Baltic capitals. However, there are also crucial differences between the two projects. One of these is the different times when the original buildings were destroyed. The palace in Vilnius was demolished between 1799 and 1801 by the newly installed Russian administration, having lost its practical function as a palace one and a half centuries beforehand. Accordingly, there are hardly any paintings of the original building which could serve as reliable sources. By contrast, the original appearance of the House of the Blackheads in Riga can be seen in hundreds of photographs. It was destroyed in two stages. The famous main façade was destroyed in 1941, when dozens of buildings in the old town of Riga were reduced to ruins by German bombardment. The remaining parts of the building survived for a few years, but were demolished in 1948.Interestingly, ideas of recreating the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and the House of the Blackheads can be traced back to Soviet-era town planning. Proposals to rebuild the House of the Blackheads were first tabled in 1966 while similar discussions concerning the palace in Vilnius began in 1983. Nevertheless, nearly nothing was done by Soviet Latvian authorities to support the reconstruction of the House of the Blackheads until just a few weeks before the Baltic Republics regained their independence in 1991. In Vilnius, far longer was needed for preliminary archaeological studies before reconstruction could finally be planned. Although rebuilding the palace had been legitimatized since the latter years of the USSR by a wealth of archaeological finds, investigations had to continue to make reconstruction scientifically sound despite the lack of pictures of key parts of the original building. The new structure is now open to visitors, but defining its function remains difficult.