Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross, Vilnius, Catholic church in Jeruzalė district, Vilnius, Lithuania
The Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross is a Baroque brick church on the east bank of the Neris River in the Jeruzalė district of Vilnius. It has two slender towers on its facade, and inside there are six altars covered in colorful artificial marble with painted scenes from scripture.
The church was completed in 1700 and is closely tied to the Calvary complex that the Dominicans had established in the 17th century. In 1755, Lithuanian noble families funded a major restoration that secured the building for the centuries ahead.
The church is part of the Vilnius Calvary pilgrimage complex, one of the largest of its kind in northern Europe. Visitors today can still walk the traditional route with its 35 chapels and sculptural groups that wind through the hills north of the city.
The church sits in the northern part of Vilnius and can be reached on foot from the city center by following the Neris riverside path. Marked trails around the site guide visitors through the full Calvary complex, so comfortable shoes are a good idea.
During Napoleon's 1812 campaign, the church was used as barracks and a field hospital, and most of its historical records were lost in that period. Those gaps in the archive mean that parts of the building's earlier story remain unclear to this day.
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