The 17th century winding stairs in the Vilnius Cathedral as a source of information on architectural and natural history

Abstract

Vilnius Cathedral, formerly a part of the Vilnius Castles' complex, is one of the oldest churches in Lithuania, founded at least after the Christianisation of L `thuania at the end of the 14th century. Different parts of it were rebuilt and renovated several times due to damages made by wars and fires. The Cathedral acquired its present day Classical appearance at the end of the 18th century. One of the most beautiful parts of the church is St Casimir's Chapel, built in 1623-1636. The Chapel was not only connected to the Cathedral but also had a passage to the nearby Ducal Palace. Grand Dukes and Kings having arrived by this passage used to listen to service in a balcony above the chapel door. The passage has not remained until nowadays. The present-day balcony can be reached by wooden winding stairs located in a well within a wall between the Chapel and the side nave of the Cathedral. Wooden steps are made of pine blocks and are carved in a special shape with their lugs forming the central shaft in the centre of the stair well. Such a construction allows seeing the surface of crosssection of the steps in the central shaft. In order to make a non-destructive dendrochronological analysis of the stairs, photographic technique was applied. Cross-sections of 20 steps, containing largest number of annual rings and made of parts of trunks closest to bark edge, were photographed and pictures analysed using standard methods. Analysed peaces had 82 to 154 annual rings. No one sample had preserved bark edge. Maximum number of surviving sapwood rings was 66. Seventeen series were cross-dated and average chronology spanning 173 years was constructed. The chronology was dated against Vilnius and Riga pine chronologies to 1490-1662. This dating showed that the stairs were not originally built with the St. Casimir Chapel till 1636. [...].