The Dubingiai microregion : the Radvila family ancestral home

ENThe article presents the results of the 2003 to 2014 scholarly investigation of the Dubingiai microregion, including one of the most significant archeological finds in recent years in Lithuania - the discovery of the Radvila family burial plot. The Dubingiai microregion, which could have extended for a distance of ten kilometers, began forming during the Old Iron Age (from the first to fourth centuries AD). At that time, Lake Asveja formed a natural boundary dividing one territory from another. In the Middle Iron Age (fifth to tenth centuries AD), three stable small microregions formed around the lake, opposite its crossings. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, created the first artificial territorial-administrative unit - Dubingiai Parish, which was created on the basis of the old microregion. Later, this territory fell into the hands of the Radvila family, who built a masonry palace, rebuilt the old church, and prepared a family burial site there. The palace and church had completely disappeared by the eighteenth century. Archeologi-cal field work was conducted at Dubingiai, during which the palace and church were excavated and the burial site of the Radvilas discovered. [From the publication]