[1] Built in the 16th and 17th centuries, and maintained by the Radziwiłł family until 1939, the castle and the nearby Corpus Christi Church were instrumental in the development of Central European and Russian architecture.

Since the Radziwiłłs were one of the most important and wealthy clans of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, it was there that the Lithuanian Metrica was moved in 1551.

In 1582, Mikołaj Krzysztof "Sierotka" Radziwiłł, the Marshal of Lithuania, Voivode of Trakai–Vilnius and castellan of Šiauliai, started the construction of an imposing square three-storey "château".

Several decades later, the Radziwiłłs invited some German and Italian architects to substantially renovate and enlarge the castle.

Soon afterwards the Lithuanian Metrica was transferred to Saint Petersburg (where it still remains today), while the majority of works of art gathered in the palace were distributed among various Russian and Polish nobles in support of Catherine the Great.

After the Polish–Soviet War the castle complex and the surrounding area became part of the newly established Second Polish Republic in 1920.