Nesvizh
The small settlement of Nesvizh was expanded and eventually transformed into a town during the reign of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł the Orphan (1549-1616). At that time, the construction of a massive castle began. It was surrounded, for the time, by very strong and modern fortifications on a rectangular plane, with bastions in the corners, ramparts and water-filled moats. The road from the town to the castle led along a causeway through the wetlands.
In 1586, the ordination of Nesvizh was established and the castle became its seat. It was governed by seventeen successive Entails until 1939. They have amassed a rich collection of art, archive materials and books.
The first lord of Nesvizh from the Radziwiłł family was Mikołaj, also known as the Black
(1515-1565), and the first fee tail holder of Nesvizh was Mikołaj Krzysztof the Orphan (1549-1616). Michal Kazimierz Rybeńko (1702-1762) and Karol Stanislaw Panie Kochanku (1734-1790) also made their mark in the history of Nesvizh. Due to the involvement of the next Entail, Dominik Radziwiłł (1786-1813) on the side of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Nesvizh, Olyka and Mir estates were sequestrated in 1811, and confiscated in May 1813. After Dominik's death, Antoni Henryk Radziwiłł made an attempt at their recovery and by decree of Tsar Alexander I eventually took over Nesvizh, Olyka and Mir. He spent far less money on these estates, which required more outlays, than the ones in the Prussian partition, where he lived. Nesvizh was inherited by the descendants of Antoni and Louise Hohenzollern, of whom Antoni Wilhelm (1833-1904) and his wife Maria Dorota de Castellane and their grandson Albrecht (1885-1935) made the greatest contribution to the town and the Ordinance.
One of the first Jesuit and Baroque churches in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was founded by the first Entail of Nesvizh, Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł the Orphan. It was built between 1587 and 1593 according to a design by the Italian architect and monk Giovanni Maria Bernardoni, which itself was modelled after Rome's Il Gesù church. In the basement of the temple, there is a crypt where about 100 members of the Radziwiłł family are buried. The Radziwiłł necropolis in Nesvizh is one of the largest objects of its kind in Europe.
Horse headpiece
Nuremberg or Augsburg
1520-1550
Collection of the Trzy Traby Foundation
Horse breastplate
Germany
16th century
Collection of the Trzy Traby Foundation
Maximilian Armor (Two Sets) from the Nesvizh Collection of Albrecht Radziwiłł (1885–1935)
Southern Germany
First Half of the 16th Century
Collection of the Trzy Trąby Foundation
Janusz Radziwiłł’s mace
Turkiye
17th century
Collection of the Trzy Traby Foundation
Knightly Mace (Buzdygan)
Germany
First Half of the 16th Century
Collection of the Trzy Trąby Foundation
Hunting or Sporting Crossbow and Crossbow Windlass
Germany
16th–17th Century
Collection of the Trzy Trąby Foundation