Livonia or in earlier records Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia.
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a duchy in the Baltic region, then known as Livonia, that existed from 1561 to 1569 as a nominally vassal state of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently made part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom from 1569 to 1726 and incorporated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1726. On March 28, 1795, it was annexed by the Russian Empire in the Third Partition of Poland.
The State of the Teutonic Order, also called Deutschordensstaat or Ordensstaat, was a medieval Crusader state, located in Central Europe along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. It was formed by the knights of the Teutonic Order during the 13th century Northern Crusades in the region of Prussia. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword merged in 1237 with the Teutonic Order of Prussia and became known as its branch, the Livonian Order, while their state became a part of the Teutonic Order State. At its greatest territorial extent, in the early 15th century, it encompassed Chełmno Land, Courland, Gotland, Livonia, Neumark, Pomerelia, Prussia and Samogitia, i.e. territories nowadays located in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Russia, and Sweden.
The House of Radziwiłł is a powerful magnate family originating from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later also prominent in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland.
The Parnawa Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Duchy of Livonia, part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in 1598 until the Swedish conquest of Livonia in the 1620s. The seat of the voivode was Parnawa (Pärnu).
The Inflanty Voivodeship, or Livonian Voivodeship, also known as Polish Livonia, was an administrative division and local government in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in the 1620s out of the Wenden Voivodeship and lasted until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The Inflanty Voivodeship was one of the few territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to be ruled jointly by Poland and Lithuania.
Tyzenhaus Palace is an 18th-century mansion located in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania.
Nesvizh Castle or Nyasvizh Castle is a residential castle of the Radziwiłł family in Nyasvizh (Nesvizh), Belarus. It is 183 metres (600 ft) above sea level. Built in the 16th and 17th centuries, and maintained by the Radziwiłł family until 1939, the castle and the nearby Corpus Christi Church were instrumental in the development of Central European and Russian architecture. In 2005, the castle, church, and surrounding environment were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Rokiškis is a city in northeastern Lithuania with a population of about 14,400.
Laurynas Gucevičius was an 18th-century architect from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and all of his designs were built there.
Marcin Knackfus, also known in Lithuanian as Martynas Knakfusas, was an architect, professor, and military captain from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The House of Dönhoff was an old and influential German noble family, which later also became part of the Polish nobility.
Antoni Tyzenhauz was a noble from the Tyzenhaus family, son of Benedykt Tyzenhauz. As a personal friend of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Tyzenhaus became Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and administrator of royal estates. He began to implement various agricultural reforms and pioneered industrialization in an effort to increase productivity and economic power of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At first, he was successful and managed to gain considerable political influence; he was considered to be the second man after the King. However, the efforts were based on the old system of serfdom and failed. Eventually, amidst increasing political rivalry with other nobles and mounting debts, Tyzenhauz was accused of fraud and removed from public offices in 1780.
Kossakowski was an aristocratic family of Mazovian origin.
The House of Ogiński, feminine form: Ogińska, plural: Ogińscy was a noble family of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, member of the Princely Houses of Poland.
Tiesenhausen is the name of a Baltic German nobility family. The origins of the family are in Lower Saxony. During the Baltic crusades they settled in Livonia in the first half of the 12th century. Bishops Albert of Riga and Herman of Tartu had a sister whose husband Engelbertus de Tisenhuse was the progenitor of the family in the Baltic. After some time in southern Livonia in the early stages of occupation, Engelbertus joined his brother-in-law bishop Herman to obtain the northern Livonian country of Ugaunia around Otepää and Tartu. It was Ugaunia where the family held its main early properties and positions. Engelbertus' son married a daughter of the castellan of Koknese in Latgale and through this marriage, the family claims descent from indigenous princes of the Latgalians. Some branches of Tisenhusen clan settled later to the Latvian Vidzeme holdings of Ergli and Berzaune. From the ancestral place of Ugaunia, sons of the family managed to obtain estates in other parts of Estonia, also so-called Danish Estonia and Osilia-Rotalia, both by services and by marriages.
Ludza Castle was a medieval castle built in Gothic style located next to a Catholic church, on the site of a former Latgalian wooden castle in the centre Ludza, Latvia, a small town in eastern Latgale. Its main purpose was to be an eastern outpost to control trade routes from Russia. Nowadays the impressive fragments of the castle walls, including a three-floor high fragment, still remain. The ruins are the main tourist attraction in the Ludza District, and is considered a symbol of the town.
The Treaty of Vilnius or Vilna was concluded on 28 November 1561, during the Livonian War, between the Livonian Confederation and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Vilnius. With the treaty, the non-Danish and non-Swedish part of Livonia, with the exception of the Free imperial city of Riga, subjected itself to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus with the Pacta subiectionis (Provisio ducalis). In turn, Sigismund granted protection from the Tsardom of Russia and confirmed the Livonian estates' traditional privileges, laid out in the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti.
Terra Mariana was the official name for Medieval Livonia or Old Livonia. It was formed in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade, and its territories were composed of present-day Estonia and Latvia. It was established on 2 February 1207, as a principality of the Holy Roman Empire, but lost this status in 1215 when Pope Innocent III proclaimed it as directly subject to the Holy See.
Rokiškis Music School was a music school sponsored by the Tyzenhaus family that operated in Rokiškis from 1873 to 1904. While it focused on preparing church organists, several prominent Lithuanian interwar musicians were its alumni.
