Located in Vilnius' Old Town, this church was built in the mid 14th century.
A sign at the site reads:
"The Russian Orthodox Church of St. Parasceve
The construction of the first church of St. Parasceve (or Platnickaya)
was initiated by a wife of Grand Duke Algirdas, Maria, in 1345. A pagan temple to the god Ragutis is believed to have stood here before that. After a fire, a new church was built at the end of the 16th century. The Russian czar Peter I visited it in 1705 and in 1708, presented Swedish flags taken in battle. It is believed that during the visithe baptised his African protoge, Hannibal, who later married a Russian noble and became the great grandfather of the great poet Alexander Pushkin. The present church was built in 1865 by N. Chagin.
Incidentally, the poster of this waymark just happened to have completed Pushkin's short story, "The Negro of Peter the Great" in which part of the story of Hannibal is told...but nothing about his time here in Vilnius.
This website, (
visit link) adds:
"This attractive pink Russian Orthodox Church is to be found at the end/beginning of Ribiskiu Didzioji and Pilies gatve behind the 'Souvenir Market'
Phil re-named it 'The Church with the hand' due to the large sculpture in the church yard.
According to my 'Vilnius in your Pocket' (and other sources) this was the first church in Vilnius to be constructed of stone. It dates back to the mid 14th Century, and was believed to have been built on a former pagan temple to Ragutis, a pagan god.
Princess Maria, the wife of Prince Algirdas, ordered the construction of this first Orthodox church. Following her death in 1346, she was buried here.
It has suffered fire damage in the past and has been re-built/renovated many times.
At times it has been derelict for long periods (Following the Third Partition of 1795, the church was abandoned for 70 years)
In 1705, the African prince Hannibal (aka Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal) was alleged to have been christened in the church. Born in Eritrea, he was adopted by the Russian Tzar, Peter The Great, who took on the role of God father at the service. This was during the Great Northern War,and Peter had also visited the church to pray for Victory.
Hannibal's great grandson was the author Alexander Pushkin, who started a novel Peter the Great's Negro, which wasn't completed, but was published in 1837.
After a rebuild in 1864, the church was to suffer more fire damage during WW2, and was once again re-built in 1949.
In 1961, the church closed, but re-opened the following year as a Lithuanian folk art museum. (The Soviet Stalinist government had initially intended that this become a Museum of Atheism)
On May 31st 1991 the building was re-consecrated to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Services on Sunday are in Lithuanian."