TILTAI IR KELTAI KAIP XVIII AMŽIAUS VILNIAUS PAVIETO BAJORŲ TEISINIŲ GINČŲ OBJEKTAI IR NUSIKALTIMŲ ERDVĖS

Abstract

Bridges and ferries, as objects of dispute and crime locations among the eighteenth century nobles of Vilnius district, is the main topic of research in this article. Case materials and auxiliary documents from the records of Vilnius district castle and land courts reveal how often bridges are mentioned in the court processes in both violent and non-violent crimes. Research explores what types of violent crimes took place on bridges or ferries most often. It also works on questions of geographic localisation and statistics, discussing general situation of bridges in Vilnius and its neighbouring areas in the eighteenth century. Bridges are regularly mentioned in the books of the eighteenth century Vilnius castle and land courts, albeit most references are not related to conflicts and bridges are mentioned as orientation marks or in reference to location of a real estate object. Both non-violent legal disputes, involving bridges as objects, and violent crimes on the bridges were not in multitude, however non-violent crimes were in smaller numbers. There were seven dispute cases about lands, properties and plots of land where bridges and ferries are mentioned. Non-violent conflicts mostly took place in rural areas of the district, four of them, and three such disputes happened in Vilnius (one on the Green Bridge and two on the bridges over the River Vilnia). Most commonly recorded violent crime on a bridge was beating and, since this was the most common type of crime perpetrated by nobles in the eighteenth century Vilnius district, this trend is logical. A bridge is once mentioned in the record about a raid. In terms of location, more crimes on the bridges took place in the rural space, although this particular space wasn’t dominant, since six crimes were reported in the province and five in the city – two in Vilnius on the Green (Stone) Bridge, two on the bridges over the River Vilnia and one on a ferry near Šnipiškės. Trends in crime locations match general crime tendencies in Vilnius district, where more crimes took place in the rural space than in the urban one. One may guess, that the rare mention of bridges partially testifies to the fact that in the eighteenth century Vilnius district level of communication was not high and there were not too many bridges. On the other hand, when assessing trends in violent crimes in Vilnius district it was revealed that bridge based crimes comprised only one percent of all crimes. Having in mind that bridge is a relatively small object, compared to several different or other urban and rural spaces, this number isn’t that small. Keywords: Vilnius district, castle court, land court, crimes, nobles, peasants, bridges, ferries, passings.