Anna Branković

At the table

Rye bread as a staple and currency

Rye was the primary cereal used for staple black bread, which was often baked in large oblong loaves on wooden peels and sometimes placed on leaves like maple or cabbage for flavor. Bread was so valued that in earlier periods it was even used as a form of currency to pay fees when traveling across private lands.

What people wore

Cost of a woman's dress

In 1540, a dress known as a suknia cost one and a half Lithuanian groszy, and a bride might include three of these in different colors as part of her dowry.

Getting around

Slow travel for common people

Commoners traveled on foot at about 20-25 km per day, while carts pulled by horses or oxen moved at a similarly slow pace.

Work

The communal harvest tradition of talka

A community tradition called talka required entire families to drop their own urgent work to help with major seasonal harvests on the manor. In return, the host family provided food, drink, dancing, and games for the helpers.

Music

Jesuit college dance parties

Students at Jesuit colleges sometimes organized dance parties to enliven their daily lives, featuring Western-style dances such as Chorea, Paduana, and Galiarda.

Daily life

Limited schooling for peasant children

Peasant children were mostly illiterate and rarely attended parish schools, as parents prioritized their agricultural labor and schools were sparse due to a lack of funding.