Sociotopography of Vilnius in the 17th–18th centuries: Main Features and Directions of Development

Abstract

The article summarises the characteristics of the development of the Vilnius community in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, regarding the context of historical events between the 17th and 18th centuries. The summary is part of a scientific project carried out between 2018 and 2021, based on a research of real estate registers and lists of taxes collected by the magistrate. The research used a statistical method, a spatial relational database and the structured query language (SQL) as well as Python programming language libraries NumPy and Pandas for managing and analysing big data. A detailed description of the study and its results can be found in the collective monograph published in 2021. Based on these sources, the value of real estate in different districts of Vilnius, spatial distribution, size and function of the buildings as well as the distribution of their owners in the city between first half of the 17th and the end of the 18th century were analysed. It was determined that frequent large fires were causing the biggest changes to the spatial structure of Vilnius. The greatest changes in demography and sociotopography were recorded after the occupation of Vilnius by the Moscow army between 1655 and 1661 and plague outbreaks in 1657 and between 1709 and 1710. During these times, the city has lost between 30 and 50 percent of its population. As a result, the mediaeval spatial structure of the old city gradually disappeared and its current appearance was formed with large, almost completely built-up plots of land, elite residences and dominant brick architecture of the Baroque style. The social structure has been partially changed. Poor townspeople and some artisans moved from the city centre to the suburbs. In the fortified centre, most real estate passed from the hands of ordinary citizens to wealthy individuals and organisations, who often acquired entire groups of empty land areas. However, some characteristics of the sociotopography of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries remained unchanged, including the locations of some areas where social groups were living.