A historical marker at the church provides text in Lithuanian and English. The English text reads:
"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, and presented Swedish flags taken in battle. It is believed that during the visit he baptized his African protégé, 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."
The following additional information is from Wikipedia (
visit link) :
"St. Paraskeva Church is an Orthodox church in Vilnius.
The first Orthodox church of St. Paraskeva was constructed on demand of prince Algirdas' first wife, a Vitebsk princess Maria, who was subsequently buried there in 1346. According to the legend, the church was built on the site of a temple to the pagan god, Ragutis. This church was completely destroyed by fire in 1557 and rebuilt three years later, but burned down again in 1611. Although ruined, it was given to the uniate parish. In 1655, it was given back to the Orthodox parish and renovated.
During the Great Northern War, in 1705, the church was visited by the Russian tsar Peter the Great, who prayed there for the military victory. During the same service, Abram Petrovich Gannibal was baptised, with the tsar serving as the godfather. Three years later, the victorious tsar decided to grant some of the conquered Swedish flags to St. Paraskeva's church.
In 1748, the building was again destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1795. However, it stood closed during the following forty years, slowly falling into decline. In 1864, on the orders of the Russian local government, it was rebuilt and enlarged in Neo-Byzantine style by Nikolay Chagin.
The church was devastated during the World War II. Although it was renovated again, the Stalinist government didn't allow the Russian Orthodox Church to start holding its services there. At first, a Museum of Atheism was to be opened there, but in the end the church was turned into a gallery of Lithuanian folk art. The church was given back to the Orthodox Church only in 1990 and reconsecrated by Metropolitan Khrisostom the following year. Since then it has been an auxiliary church of the Cathedral of the Theotokos."
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