The masonry castle with earth ramparts and wooden fortifications was constructed by Swedish builders in the 16th century in order to secure the old road from Vilnius to Riga against attacks from Livonia.
He left the Baltadvaris Castle to his son Mauricijus Kazimieras who mortgaged the property for 41,500 Polish złoty to Lew Sapieha in 1630 to cover family's debts.
However, seeing poor condition of the property, Radziwiłł sold the castle just nine months later for just 26,000 złoty to Andrzej Kossakowski, stolnik of Minsk.
He owned the property for 12 years and improved it – archaeologists found fragments of glazed and unglazed tiles with the Ślepowron coat of arms used by the Kossakowski family.
[1] The congregation owned the deteriorating castle until the beginning of the 19th century when it was confiscated by the Tsarist authorities pursuant to the Russification policies and given to an Eastern Orthodox monastery.
[7] During the Soviet era, the former castle belonged to a kolkhoz and suffered further damage as ramparts were plowed over, particularly on the southern side.
The archaeologists removed debris and explored several sections in the territory, but no valuable artifacts were found and the excavation report was not submitted.
With financial assistance from Michal Giedroyc, more extensive excavations were carried out in 1999–2003 that explored an area of 399 square metres (4,290 sq ft).
[3] The ramparts were likely topped with wooden defensive walls, but archaeologists did not find their remnants – possibly they were built from horizontal logs.
[3] The main residential building with a splendid "golden" hall and a Renaissance garden described in written sources stood in the second yard.
In one such disturbed layer, archaeologists found fragments of pottery that date back to the first centuries AD, well before the construction of the castle.
[1] Archaeologists found fragments of various tiles from the 16th and 17th centuries decorated with floral motifs (including cornflower), geometric figures, angels.