St. George the Martyr Church, Kaunas ( lt, Kauno Šv. Jurgio Kankinio bažnyčia) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church in the Old Town of Kaunas, Lithuania, which stands in front of the

Kaunas Castle Kaunas Castle is a medieval castle in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. Archeological evidence suggests that it was originally built during the mid-14th century, in the Gothic style. Its site is strategic – a rise on the banks o ...

. It is a prominent example of

Gothic architecture in Lithuania Lithuania is not the very centre of Gothic architecture, but it provides a number of examples, partly very different and some quite unique. Conditions Lithuania, situated at the border of Greek and Roman Church had developed by the defence of i ...

. The church was heavily damaged during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and most recently during the occupation of the Baltic states when the church was converted into a medicine warehouse.

History

Its history began in 1471 when Stanislovas Sendzivojevičius, the Court Marshall 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 Lit ...

, donated a plot of land on the outskirts of Kaunas and Ivaška Viaževičius, the Elder of Kaunas, agreed to fund the building of a wooden church and an adjacent monastery for the Bernardine monks. Two decades later it was decided to re-build the church and the monastery in a Brick Gothic style. The construction began in 1492 and ended in 1502. It was built roughly at the same time as the St. Ann and the Bernardine churches 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 ...

. All three churches were most likely built by the same famed architect from Danzig, Michael Enkinger.

References

{{commons category, Church of St. George in Kaunas Buildings and structures completed in 1487 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Lithuania Roman Catholic churches in Kaunas Brick Gothic Gothic architecture in Lithuania