Fiodor Sanguszko

What people wore

Simple Footwear for Everyday Life

Ordinary city dwellers and peasants often wore naginės, which were simple, plain-soled shoes made from a single piece of animal skin, and they frequently wrapped cloth around their shins and feet for protection.

Daily life

Modest wooden peasant homes

Peasant homesteads were modest, typically consisting of a wooden dwelling house, a granary, and a cattle-shed. Some peasants in Samogitia lived in a numas, a structure with a central fireplace rather than a stove.

Work

Peasant Labor Obligations and Communal Work

Peasants commonly owed two days of labor per week to the manor, a system known as tyaglo, with working hours fixed from sunrise to sunset. During this time, they also participated in seasonal communal work called talka for intense agricultural tasks.

Music

Festivals and funeral feasting customs

Folk festivals and life-cycle celebrations like weddings and births were marked by feasting, mead drinking, and merry-making. During funeral rituals, families visited ancestral graves in forests to feast and leave offerings to honor the spirits.

At the table

Beer was the standard drink

Because water was often considered unsafe, beer was the most common drink for people of all social classes, and the art of distilling grain-based vodka was also introduced during this period.

Getting around

Common transport and horse traction methods

Transport relied on wooden four-wheel carts and horse-drawn sledges, with sledges sometimes being preferred even in summer in wet regions. Because roads were not stone-paved, horses were not typically shod with iron horseshoes, but instead used iron thorns nailed into hooves for better traction on ice.

What it cost

Cost of fur garments

In the ruler's court, fox fur garments for attendants were valued at prices ranging from 22 to 100 groshi, depending on quality.