Historical collections of the Vishnevets castle before WWI (on unpublished materials from V.K. Lukomsky's archive)

Due to the specificity of social and political development of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, all significant events took place in the residences of large magnates rather than in the capitals and royal court. One of the brightest among them was the castle, later Palace and Park Vishnevets, located in Volhynia. For many centuries, the estate was ruled by the representatives of the Vishnevetzky and Mniszchowie, many of whom played a significant role in political relations between Russia and Poland, especially during the Time of Troubles and the Russian-Polish rivalry for Ukraine in the middle of the 17th century. In this regard, the study of Vishnevets historical and artistic collections acquires special importance for national history. WWI served as the borderline, the "point of no return", after which it was no longer possible to restore the integrity of the castle collections, with many of them lost forever. On the eve of WWI, namely in 1911, PA Demidov, the owner of Vishnevets, invited the employees of the Petersburg artistic and historical magazine "Starye gody", V.K. and G.K. Lukomskys to become the last representatives of the Russian academic community who saw the residence collections in more or less complete form. However, the brochure "Vishnevetsky Castle, Its History and Description", which was published later, contains only a small part of the material received by the Lukomsky brothers in the castle. It becomes apparent when studying the papers by V.K. Lukomsky, stored in the Russian State Historical Archives. As a result of hostilities unleashed in Volhynia during WWI as well as the Soviet-Polish wars, Vishnevetsky castle was looted and devastated. Later the items from its collections were seen at auctions in many countries around the world. The analysis of the state of the Vishnevetsky collections on the eve of the First World War can contribute to the discovery of objects, books and manuscripts from the castle, which are of relevance to the national history today.

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