200px, All Saints Church All Saints Church ( lt, Visų Šventųjų bažnyčia, pl, Kościół Wszystkich Świętych, address: Rūdninkų St. 20/1) is a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-style church in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. All Saints church was built between 1620 and 1630 and was adopted for

Carmelites , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

' needs. In the second half of the 17th century, the church was linked with a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

and formed a single complex.

History

A large old-regulation

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

monastery adjoins the church; it is built by adapting existing buildings. In 1631–32, the main two-storey building following the street was completed; there are also several buildings of a later period and a tow-storey novitiate house with a small courtyard at the city wall. In the 16th–18th centuries they actively participated in public life, held religious feasts and processions. In 1819 the Carmelites established a

parochial school A parochial school is a private primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathematics and language arts. The ...

in the monastery. In

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 46 ...

vicar

Petras Kraujalis Petras Kraujalis (8 July 1882 – 14 August 1933) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest, editor, and publicist who was active in Vilnius Region. Biography Petras Kraujelis studied at Jelgava Gymnasium, Mitau Gymnasium, but was expelled for ...

started to preach in Lithuanian, which was opposed by Polish clergy. The Church of all Saints is at the end of a street where the main gate to the

Jewish ghetto In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter (also known as jewry, ''juiverie'', ''Judengasse'', Jewynstreet, Jewtown, or proto-ghetto) is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were ...

was. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, there was a tunnel through the sewers connecting the church with the ghetto. The priest of the church would provide bread to be taken into the ghetto through the tunnel. He also hid some Jews smuggled out of the ghetto through the tunnel. There were also Christian Lithuanians who helped smuggle

Litvaks Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas o ...

food into the ghetto. In Soviet times the church housed a museum of folk art after the reconstruction between 1967 and 1975.

Architecture

The bell tower is high and massive with elaborate decorations. After a fire in the 18th century, it was restored and finished with a

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

-style dome roof.

Marcin Knackfus Marcin Knackfus (, c. 1742 – c. 1821) was a Polish–Lithuanian Neoclassical architect of German descent. Born near Warsaw, he worked in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and particularly in its capital Vilnius. He was a tutor of Laurynas Guceviči ...

prepared project for the church's altar. Above the high altar rises another altar reminiscent of a royal throne with a canopy. A belfry was erected and the sculptures in the interior were created in the 18th century. In 1859 the polychrome interior décor was enriched. East of the church lies a square, in which the Convent of the Barefoot Carmelites once stood alongside a Baroque Church of

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

the Betrothed established in 1638 by the Vice-Chancellor of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

Stephen Pac. Its exterior was reminiscent of the

Church of St. Theresa, Vilnius Church of St. Theresa ( lt, Šv. Teresės bažnyčia, pl, Kościół św. Teresy) is a Roman Catholic church in Vilnius' Old Town, close to the Gate of Dawn The Gate of Dawn ( lt, Aušros vartai), or Sharp Gate ( pl, Ostra Brama, la, Porta ...

.Prof. Tomas Venclova. VILNIUS; R. Paknys Publishing House, In 1877 the Church of St. Joseph the Betrothed was demolished by the

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

's order, to be replaced by a market (presently it is a square).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:All Saints Church, Vilnius Roman Catholic churches in Vilnius Baroque church buildings in Lithuania