Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas Bell Tower - Vilnius, Lithuania
N 54° 40.797 E 025° 17.301
35U E 389643 N 6060522
The Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas is located in the Old Town area of Vilnius, Lithuania. It has a beautiful bell tower.
Waymark Code: WMPGMP
Location: Lithuania
Date Posted: 08/29/2015
Views: 3
The historical marker provides text in Lithuanian and English. The English text reads:
"A legend tells us that the first church here was built by Juliana, a wife of Grand Duke Algirdas. The building burnt down, and in 1514 a new Gothic church, with elements of the Byzantine style, was erected. During its reconstruction after the fire of 1748, its architecture was changed: the pediment, the facades and the heightened tower became Baroque. In the 19th century the church acquired its present Byzantine appearance. The chapel inside contains a mosaic of St. Michael the Archangel, created at the Art Academy in St. Petersburg. Despite the reconstructions, the building has preserved many authentic Gothic elements; inside there are valuable pieces of Byzantine art."
The following additional information is from Wikipedia (
visit link) :
"St. Nicholas Church is one of the oldest Orthodox churches in Vilnius, Lithuania.
According to a popular legend, the first wooden Orthodox chapel located on the place of today's St. Nicholas church was built around 1340. Seven years later, the Vilnius martyrs were supposedly buried there. However, in 1350, Uliana of Tver, the second wife of prince Algirdas, ordered to build a new brick church. In 1514 this church was again replaced with a larger one. It remained Orthodox up to 1609, when, like most of Vilnius Orthodox churches, it was given to the Uniates on a personal order of the king Sigismund III Vasa.
Around 1740 the church was completely destroyed by fire and rebuilt in Baroque style. In 1839 the Russian local government closed the Uniate parish and given the building back to the Orthodox. After the failed Polish January Uprising, it was completely rebuilt in Neo-Byzantine style on the personal initiative of general-governor of Vilnius Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov-Vilensky. The renewed church was to be another sign of Russian domination in the city, becoming the fifth Orthodox church in the Old Town of Vilnius. Muraviev ordered also the construction of St. Michael the Archangel chapel which was to commemorate his victory over the Polish uprising. In 1866 the whole church was reconsecrated. The general-governor's role in the reconstruction of the church was described on a marble plaque on the western wall of the church.
After World War II the church was closed, but in 1947 the Stalinist government agreed to reopen it as a parish church. The general renovation of the building took place before 1956."