Architectural time travel

This church is the oldest in Vilnius. It was built next to the Western Marketplace before the Baptism of Lithuania and was used for merchants from Western Europe and the nearby Catholic townspeople. The Gothic church has been reconstructed with Baroque features, but a look at the side façades reveals the Gothic pointed-arch windows hidden behind the Baroque tracery arches, which have been bricked up. The three Gothic niches in the presbytery, in place of the former windows, help to imagine what they looked like. In 2000, when the church vaults were repaired, the Gothic wall paintings found under seven layers of paint where restored. The frescoed areas above the organ choir, above the left side altar and in the central nave were also restored. On the right wall of the church, you will find a bust of Duke Vytautas the Great, as well as a monument created by R. Jakimavičius and erected in 1930 to commemorate Vytautas’ 500th birthday. Do you recognise the personalities depicted in the stained glass windows? These are the people who have contributed to Lithuanian culture and were commemorated here after Lithuania regained its independence. Their names are inscribed in gold letters on a white marble plaque.

In 1469, King Kazimieras Jogailaitis gave the Bernardines a plot of land near the Vilnia River, where the monks immediately built a wooden church, but the church burnt down before ten years had passed. When the construction of the stone church began, the foundations caved in and the walls buckled, and the building had to be demolished, except for the sacristy and the presbytery. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Church of St Bernardine of Siena and St Francis of Assisi was rebuilt on reinforced foundations.  Interestingly, the defensive wall of Vilnius was being built at the same time. As the roof of the church still contains shooting openings, it is assumed that the church could have been part of a unified defence system. Inside, on the northern wall, you can see the best preserved16th-century Gothic painting. The painted procession gallery around the courtyard connected the church with the two-storey monastery. Vilnius Academy of Arts is housed in the monastery nowadays. The Gothic structure of the monastery’s plan, structures and some artistic forms have been preserved. When Lithuania regained its independence, the southern wing of the monastery, together with the churches of St Bernardine and St Francis, was returned to the Bernardines of Lithuania. If someone were to ask for examples of Gothic architecture in Vilnius, most of us would probably point our fingers at the graceful and rather flamboyant St. Anne’s Church. Of course, it is Lithuania’s most famous monument of late Gothic architecture. It stands at the front of the whole ensemble and, although smaller, even dwarfs the larger church. Architects in the Gothic period were mostly anonymous, and today the name of the architect of St Anne’s is still debated. Some believe that it was Michael Enkinger from Gdańsk who contributed to the construction of the Bernardine Church at the end of the 15th century, while others believe that it was the monk Bernard Avelides; still others believe it could have been Benedikt Rydz – the Jogailaitis family architect in Prague. Whoever the architect really was, there is no doubt that they were a master of construction and a genius artist. It is impressive that they knew how to make ropes and write letters using only 33 profiled bricks.

Gothic stone houses started being built in the 15th century, but most of those that survive date back to the 16th century. They were built by the nobility, merchants, and wealthier craftsmen. Larger houses were built along the main streets, smaller ones further away. After the fires of the early 16th century, it was ordered that houses were to be built along the most important streets. Gothic rectangular houses of 1-3 storeys were built with the back facing the street, but there are also side-facing and corner houses. The façades of the houses were restrained, with unplastered walls and little decoration. Two Gothic houses were found and restored after the Second World War at the current address of Pilies g. 12, built right on the boundaries of the plots; one with its side and one with its end to the street, and then merged into one. In the 16th century it was occupied by goldsmiths and in the 17th century it was given to the Cathedral Chapter. Both houses have been restored to highlight the Gothic style. The side house is accessed through a door in the middle of the house. The house at the end facing the street, built slightly later, is accessed from a gateway, through a vaulted porch with a hearth in the corner and stairs to the second floor and basement. Today we can admire the magnificent late Gothic façade with its many different elements in the profiled brickwork.

Influenced by Queen Bona Sforza, who came from Italy, the Palace was rebuilt in the Renaissance style – an unparalleled example for nobility. Later, Renaissance forms were repeated in other city buildings. Although Vilnius has recurrently suffered fires with buildings being burnt down many times, or destroyed and devastated by wars, examples of Renaissance architecture have survived. Such a building can be seen at the beginning of Pilies Street – Pilies g. 4. Vilnius Cathedral Chapter received a plot of land at the end of the 14th century, where it constructed a house to accommodate its members, and later rented out part of the premises. The building was burnt down several times and rebuilt, but the most beautiful part of the house, the Renaissance attic, has not changed. The attic, a wall that protected the roof from fire, came into fashion in the Renaissance. Vidas Poškus surmises that the Dutch Peter Nonhart probably worked here, as he was in charge of Vilnius Castle and was known for creating simple but effective attics.

The foundation of St Michael’s Church is due to the man who held high office as the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Governor of Vilnius, as well as the Great Lithuanian Hetman (a military commander second only to the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). This man was Leonas Sapiega, who at the end of the 16th century bequeathed huge wealth to the Bernardine Poor Clares, promising to build a monastery and the Church of St Michael, where he would install the family mausoleum. In return, the nuns were charged with the obligation to pray for the King, the country, the Senate, and the patron’s family. The church, consecrated in 1625, was built next to the Gothic churches of St. Anne, and Saints Bernardine and Francis. It is still of Gothic proportions, but the north side façade shows that Gothic has given way to Renaissance. In the niches of the upper part of the building, the frescoes of three archangels can be seen: the figures of St. Michael, St. Raphael, and St. Gabriel can be seen. Even higher, in a square plane surrounded by tongues of flame, is the monogram of Christ, and at the very top is the year of the church’s completion. Once inside, notice the coat of arms of the Sapiegas family in the centre of the decorative plaster stars and rosettes in the vaults. The large late Renaissance coloured marble altar of the Holy Trinity, the 17th-century tombstones of the Sapiegas family, as well as the family mausoleum with the remains of the Sapiegas family are all preserved. Currently, the Church Heritage Museum is housed in St Michael’s Church and Monastery; here you can get acquainted not only with the treasures of church art, but also with the church and monastery’s changing history and rejuvenated interiors.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the burnt-out Gothic houses that stood here were rebuilt, plastered, and the shooting holes in the defensive wall were bricked up, giving the Gothic houses a Renaissance look. The attic of one of the buildings on the Totorių g. side and the most beautiful building of the novitiate are reminders of the Renaissance period. You can see it in the courtyard next to St. Ignatius Church. The former open galleries, framed in glass  during restoration work, are not as graceful as those found in Italy. The heavy arches have been lowered, and on the first two floors, it is as if a decorative dark grey cornice were pressed into place. The third-floor galleries are covered by a heavy tiled roof.

The Discalced Carmelites (also known as The Barefoot Carmelites, so called for going bare foot or being shod only in sandals) came to Vilnius from Poland at the beginning of the 17th century and established themselves at the city’s defensive wall, near Medininkai Gate. The first wooden church they built was quickly burnt down and replaced by this brick church, which was built in 1633-1650 according to a creative adaptation of the model Carmelite design by architects C. Tenkall and C. Ulrich. The façade is laconic, graceful, and early Baroque, with sculptures of the reformers of the Carmelite Order installed in the niches. Looking at the front of the church, you will find the coats of arms of two well-known dynasties: the Vasa dynasty crest depicts a small sheaf of flax, while at the very top, the large coat of arms of the Pacas dynasty can be found.

The Gothic-style Church of St. Johns is the first parish church in Vilnius. Dedicated to (St. John the Baptist and St. John the Apostle and Evangelist), it was built after the Baptism of Lithuania at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. Its façade and interior are in the late Baroque style. An interesting element are the black angels perched on the church, which keep appearing from different angles as you walk through the winding streets of the Old Town. St Johns’ Church is home to an impressive cultural treasure – Lithuania’s largest organ. The instrument consists of 3,925 wooden and metal pipes arranged on three floors.

The church acquired its present appearance after its restoration in the early 18th century by J. C. Glaubitz, the most famous Baroque architect in Vilnius. He built cylindrical vaults, enlarged the organ choir, converted the side aisle into a corridor, laid a sandstone floor, and redesigned the Chapel of Holy Providence. The sculptors Jonas and Juozapas Hedelis created the pulpit and new altars, which were painted by Szymon Czechowicz. The church, which stands in the very centre of the capital’s bustle on Vilniaus Street, is richly decorated, and if you examine the façade, you can see the coats of arms of the Pacas family and other beneficent families. Today, St Catherine’s Church, part of the Benedictine Monastery ensemble, is best known as a venue for concerts and other events.

For a long time, it was believed that Vilnius Cathedral was built in 1387, where the Baltic pagan god of Thunder, Perkūnas, was worshipped. However, at the end of the 20th century, this theory was questioned, and speculations emerged that the first cathedral was built in the middle of the 13th century, for the baptism of and coronation of King Mindaugas. Experts disagree, and there is no answer, but one thing is for sure – this cathedral has changed its appearance several times. It was built in Gothic style during the reign of Władysław Jagiełło, then became Renaissance and took on Baroque features. Today’s classical look was given to the cathedral by the architect Laurynas Stuoka-Gucevičius, who studied in Western Europe. The cathedral has 11 chapels, including the famous St Casimir’s Chapel, built by Italian craftsmen.

In 1387, Duke Jogaila of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) granted Magdeburg rights to Vilnius. The citizens were allowed to elect their government, and to give them a place to sit, and so the Town Hall was built. A 16th-century image of the Town Hall, with its tower, horseshoe-shaped courtyard and well, can already be seen in F. Hogenberg’s map of Vilnius of 1583. The Town Hall was used as a workplace for the Governor of the city – the Vaitas, a meeting place for the magistrate, a treasury, an archive, a storehouse for weights and measures, and various warehouses. There was also a prison in the basement, which, like the Pillar of Shame and the gallows, was supervised by a hired hangman. None other than L. Stuoka-Gucevičius contributed to the current appearance of the Town Hall. The Town Hall has harmonious proportions, a coherent architectural composition, and a solemn appearance thanks to its eight-landing staircase. In 1940, the Town Hall became a museum. It now serves as the city’s representative hall, hosts exhibitions and other events, has a Tourist Information Centre; you can even visit the dungeons.

This classical monument (also known as the de Choiseul Palace) in S. Daukantas Square is a counterbalance to the Presidential Palace in front of it. The Classical reconstruction was carried out by Marcin Knackfus, an architect who came to Vilnius from Poland. He introduced the first seeds of classicism to Vilnius by reconstructing palaces for the nobility, such as this one. He combined Baroque and Classical forms, so he left the Baroque mansard roof here too, and introduced a Classical portico of four Ionic columns without an entrance at the end of the block facing the square. It became one of the highlights of the composition of the square.

The architect M. Knackfus also designed the Lopacinskis Palace. This brick house stood here as early as the 16th century and was rebuilt into a classicist palace at the end of the 18th century. Notice how the shape of the building fits in with the curved street. The entrance opening is decorated with four Ionic half-pillars.

There are three palaces of nobility lined up in front of you. All of them were rebuilt after the fires that devastated Vilnius in the mid-18th century. The house numbered 15/1 was replaced by a two-storey Gothic house bought by the Regent of Grodno, Gurecki. He left a turret-staircase in the corner of the building, which was common in Vilnius architecture from the earliest times until the second half of the 20th century, added a third storey, and rebuilt the street facade in the Classical style. The transformed building came to be known as the Gurecki Palace. The remains of the burnt-out building next to it, at Dominikonų g. 13, were bought by Bishop M. Zenkovičius in 1752 and reconstructed in the second half of the 18th  century. The second floor is distinguished by ornate windows. Next, we come to the Palace at Dominikonų g. 11, which was reconstructed five times before being passed to Pociejus family who were of noble descent. A beautiful, large, classical courtyard with strict angular forms was completed at the end of the 18th century. A turret staircase survives in the corner of the two wings. The street façade was rebuilt again in the 19th century.

All these different classical palaces have been rebuilt in a densely built-up neighbourhood, in a continuous row of facades, but they are not identical or boring. They fit in well with the Baroque churches that dominate the other side of the street and look very Vilnius-like.

Although the Historicism era saw the use of architectural forms from all periods and styles, medieval styles were rarely followed in the Historicist architecture of Vilnius. However, the wealthy doctor Hilaris Raduškevičius was very fond of the Gothic style and wanted to live in a palace similar to a Gothic castle. The Gothic residence was designed for him in 1894 by the architect Julijonas Januševskis. A couple of years later, a three-storey chateau with a tower was added to the palace. The architecture of the residence is pretentious, although the palace is made of yellowish bricks used in mass construction, and the pointed windows and other Gothic forms have been superficially repeated. The western wing was demolished after 1960 as part of the widening of Kalvarijų Street.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the most luxurious palaces in Vilnius were the palaces of the nobility that were built in prestigious locations: on the banks of the River Neris, on Gedimino pr. (then St. George Avenue), and in the Old Town. The richest noblemen at that time were still from the Tiškevičius family, so in the 1880s, Clementina Potocka-Tiškevičienė commissioned a palace to be built on bank of the Neris. The architect who designed the palace, Jonas Maculevičius, was fond of the Renaissance style, which was considered by the client to be the benchmark of aristocratic taste. The proportions and architectural forms of the palace are the epitome of Renaissance elegance. It is the most professional reproduction of Italian Renaissance forms in Vilnius. From 1907 to 1914, the palace was rented by the Museum of Science and Art, and in 1928-29 it was adapted for the Emilia and Eustachius Vrublevskis Library, which is still in use here today as the Vrublevskis’ Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.

In 1899-1902, according to the project of Vilnius city architect K. Koroyedov, the building was reconstructed from the City Guest House into a theatre and concert hall; hence, the theatre palace strove for architectural elegance and splendour. The elaborate French Baroque dome is modelled on the 19th century Grand Opéra in Paris. This reconstruction marked a new phase in the building’s architectural evolution from a commercial to a cultural function. The architect’s design for the building included not only a concert hall, but also a hotel, retail space, and residential accommodation.

The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences is located in a very special place – it used to be the building of the State Bank of Lithuania. Built in 1906-1909, it is the most magnificent of all the banks built in Vilnius before the First World War. The architect Mikhail Prozorov managed to combine classical and early modern forms, and applied a reinforced concrete vault of elliptical diameter, never before used in Vilnius, to the roof of the former bank’s operations room. It is one of the most impressive examples of modernist architecture in the capital.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture renamed this building the Old Theatre of Vilnius. This name is appropriate as what was the Russian Drama Theatre building was originally built for the Polish Drama Theatre. After the completion of the construction, the press praised the fact that the architects Wacław Michniewicz and Aleksander Parczewski harmoniously combined the motifs of the old architecture of Krakow and Vilnius. The theatre building, which stands out from the surrounding buildings, is distinctive in appearance and stylised in the spirit of modernism, and is built diagonally, attracting attention with its monumentality and moderate decor. The theatre is the most prominent building of its kind in Vilnius.

The house was designed by the owner himself, the construction technician A. Filipovič-Dubovik. He did not have a diploma in architecture, but he built about a couple of hundred various buildings in and around Vilnius. The eye-catching villa’s elegant combination of geometric forms and vegetal decor makes use of everything in modernist design that allures the mainstream consumer.

Surrounded by three different streets, the building is the most modern Vilnius department store of the early 20th century, completed in 1923. The rounded corners give the building an interesting shape. Note the high-relief masks decorating the arched shop windows on the ground floor and the shell-shaped niche with two baby figures above the main entrance.

This is one of the most beautiful interwar residential buildings in Vilnius. The building, which is connected from the upper and lower parts, faces the street with a rounded exterior. As usual in interwar architecture, any excessive decoration has been abandoned in favour of functionality. The house was built in 1938, presumably by Izak Smorgonski.

If you’ve ever waited for a trolleybus near the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, you’ll be familiar with this building. This solid block of sub-divided two-storey dwellings for the families of Polish officers was built in 1930. The sub-divided houses have a stepped façade line – an architectural rhythm that can be seen in all the columned sections. Step into the courtyard, where open terraces shelter you from street noise. The Polish modernist architects who designed the quarter abandoned ornamentation for economy and simplicity of form. They succeeded in creating a distinctive, stylistically coherent complex of inter-war Vilnius functionalist architecture.

Buildings constructed during the Stalinist period represent the Socialist Realism movement. They are like great temples – monumental, massive, pompous, and richly decorated. This is the most prominent building of the period in the retrospective Neoclassical style and is included in the Register of Cultural Heritage. The ‘Pergalė’ (‘Victory’) Cinema was constructed in 1952 and designed by G. Ripa, an architect of Italian origin. The ‘Pergalė’ is proof that no expense was spared in the construction of cinemas during the Soviet era. Both outside and inside, there is a lot of decoration. The exterior features ornate pilasters and columns, while the interior is made of artificial marble and decorated with chandeliers.

The site of the Contemporary Art Centre was long occupied by the remains of two destroyed buildings after World War II. In 1965, the ruins were removed, and the Art Exhibition Hall designed by architect Vytautas Čekanauskas was built on top of the cleared Renaissance buildings. The architect sensitively integrated the palace into the space of the Old Town – neither in form nor size does one of the best Lithuanian modernist buildings overshadow the old architecture. The two-storey building with a fractured configuration is made of prefabricated and monolithic reinforced concrete. The inner courtyard has an enclosed space for sculptures, with fences and gates made of artistic forging.

Designed by the architects E. Chlomauskas, J. Kriukelis, and Z. Liandsbergis, the Palace of Concerts and Sports (constructed in 1971) is the only building of its type in Lithuania, reflecting the architecture of the 1960s-1970s in Europe. The multi-purpose 6,000-seat entertainment and sports hall was built on the right bank of the Neris River, next to Žalgiris Stadium and the indoor swimming pool that at the time were nearby. The building immediately sparked controversy, with some praising and others criticising the innovative design with its distinctive silhouette, an elegant rectangular plan, with the spectator stands curving steeply upwards. The original corrugated structure is used, with a pre-stressed reinforced concrete slab suspended from reinforced concrete frames. The original engineering solution won an award.

The tallest commercial building in the Baltic States, built in 2002-2004, was designed by  the architects Audrius Ambrasas and Vilma Adomonytė. The 33-storey, 148-metre-high business centre is original – the skyscraper looks like a sleek tower made of two semi-cylinders, with a rectangular column wall running along its length, giving it stability. The exterior of the building features curved, greyish glass planes, longitudinal window dots and orange aluminium strips. The eye can be fooled into thinking that the cylinder is rotating. The observation deck on the 31st floor offers unparalleled views of the city. The building is equipped with modern autonomous electrical, air-conditioning and communication systems. Europa Business Centre was named one of the world’s top 15 skyscrapers in 2004.

The three-storey shopping centre is an integral part of the overall shopping and business complex. The façade is long and blind on the Konstitucijos Avenue side and concave and covered by a pyramid-like glass roof on the ‘Europe Square’ side. The roof has a complex shape, with a steel frame, aluminium structures and different sizes of glass. The architects of the project – Audrius Ambrasas, Vilma Adomonytė, Darius Juškevičius, Rasa Ambrasienė and Donatas Malinauskas – were awarded the 2004 ‘CEE Real Estate Award’ for the best multifunctional project of Central and Eastern Europe.

The ‘Business Triangle’ was launched in a strategically attractive location between Goštauto and Geležinio Vilko streets after Lithuania regained its independence. It now has the highest concentration of service and office buildings in the city centre. One of the first business centres to be built here was the ‘Hanner Business Centre’. The use of open aluminium structures and metal profiles has created a remarkable technocratic building with dynamic shapes. Well adapted to the adjacent slopes, it echoes the lines of nature and was designed by Audrius Ambrasas and Vilma Adomonytė.