Biržai Castle is a castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 in Biržai

Biržai

Biržai is a city in northern Lithuania. Biržai is famous for its reconstructed Biržai Castle manor, and the whole region is renowned for its many traditional-recipe beer breweries.-Names:...

, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. Construction of the earth bastion-type castle started in 1586 by the order of Krzysztof Mikołaj "the Lightning" Radziwiłł. In 1575, preparing for this construction, a dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 was built on the Agluona and Apaščia rivers at their confluence, and the artificial Lake Širvėna

Lake Širvena

Širvėna Lake is a lake located in Biržai municipality, northern Lithuania. It is the oldest artificial lake in Lithuania. It was created in 1575 when the dam was built on rivers Agluona and Apaščia. The lake was built to protect the Radvila castle in Biržai. Now the city of Biržai, which was built...

, covering about 40 km², was created. Major castle building works were finished in 1589.

Since the second half of the 17th century, the castle has been the main seat of the Biržai-Dubingiai

Dubingiai

Dubingiai is a town in Molėtai district in Lithuania. It is situated near Lake Asveja, the longest lake in the country. The town has 260 inhabitants as of 2003.-History:...

 Radziwiłł family line, which was transferred here from the Dubingiai Castle

Dubingiai Castle

Dubingiai Castle was a residential castle in Dubingiai, Molėtai district, Lithuania.The first masonry castle was constructed by Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, in 1412-1413 on an island, now a peninsula, in Lake Asveja in order to secure the capital Vilnius from attacks from Livonia. No accounts...

. Biržai Castle served as a major defensive structure during the wars with Sweden.

The castle was reconstructed from ruins in the 1980s, in the Renaissance

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

-Baroque

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 style. The residential manor of the castle houses a library and a regional history museum "Sėla" (literally Selonia

Selonia

Selonia , also known as Augšzeme , is a cultural region of Latvia encompassing the eastern part of the historical region of Semigallia...

), founded in 1928.

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