Talk:List of castles in Lithuania

Norviliškės
I think it's pretty clear it is not a castle: there was a simple manor buil by some nobles, later there was a monastery and a church. The manor is now rebuilt and called "castle" for marketing purposes. Why is it a manor? The difference between castle and manor is that castles are used for defense (military) while manors are just big nice houses. Nowhere does it say that Norviliškės manor was used for any kind of military stuff. It was first mentioned in 1500' - lang after the German orders were neutralized. Besides in such location, in the middle of GDL lands, who would attack somebody? In short, "castle" is just a simple marketing trick. Renata 14:55, 29 October 2006 (UTC)


 * it is not as clear as it might seem: many manors build not for defensive purposes in Lithuania today are still called castles, although they are mere imitations of them, such as Panemunė Castle, Raudonė Castle, Raudondvaris Castle, Kruonis Castle and others. There is not much difference of Norviliškės monastery from these residential palaces. Besides, majority of French Loire Castles were not ever used for defensive purposes either. So there is no point speaking of marketing here. There are more serious factors Iulius 15:37, 29 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Panemunė Castle, Raudonė Castle, Raudondvaris Castle - all are along Nemunas and as you know it was a MAJOR defense line against Teutonic Knights. Maybe they were rebuilt later to suit residential purposes, but there were castles. Don't know anything on Kruonis, can't comment that. But if you see the list in the article - all castles served military purpose. And palace is not a castle; palace is a very nice manor. French have their own system of calling things. Like Lithuanians have their own system of miestas - miestelis - kaimas. Renata 15:49, 29 October 2006 (UTC)


 * to be completely exact, there have not been any defensive castle in the place of Panemunė Castle and never served for defense, althoug the line was somewhere there. I believe it is true with some others. All the present Panemune Castles are exclusively residential as in France. They just look like castles. Iulius 16:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

To classify building as a castle it has to have distinguish architecture elements, which vary depending of type and tradition. M.K. 22:54, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I completely agree.Iulius 11:04, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Kaunas Fortress and Biliūnai Castle
Should these belong to this list? I am unable to find anything about them. Iulius 11:07, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I believe Kaunas Fortress is all those forts (one of them is Ninth Fort). Renata 11:49, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * But these forts cannot be called castles, could they? Iulius 12:15, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
 * These forts found refuge here, because there were some doubts due to small number of these forts. M.K.
 * Maybe split them to a subsection ?Lokyz 11:07, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Non remaining castles
Should we also include non remaining castles, like Merkinė Castle there - it seems that we're talking about hill fort (piliakalnis) here. Sorry I was wrong, there are ruins of never completed castle.--Lokyz 11:08, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Reorganization
I made some reorganization to list, but have some problems, especially with Vilnius Complex as it bears 3 parts of castles. Maybe somebody has an advise how to separate them (if needed ?), second problem - dates, which dates write as these castles undergone several stages of constructions. In other words any help on list is much appreciated. M.K. 21:51, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I think Vilnius is ok. As for construction date, easiest thing to do is to use first known date when it was mentioned. BTW, the list badly needs references. Renata 04:21, 25 August 2007 (UTC)