Church of St. Casimir, Vilnius

The Casimir's Church ( Lithuanian Švento Kazimiero Baznycia ) is one of the most important churches of the city of Vilnius. She is the first representative of the architectural style of the Baroque in the Lithuanian capital, which came with the Jesuits in the far north- east of Europe. Patron saint of the Church is the holy Casimir, the patron saint of Lithuania.

Construction

The construction of Casimir's Church was 1604-09. The final completion of the interior was 1615th It was the parish church of the Jesuits, who came to Vilnius in 1569 and initially used the location next to the University of them justified John's Church for their services. How many churches of the Jesuits was felt in Rome to the Casimir's Church the first church of the Jesuits, the Gesù. Typical of the early Baroque church is the connection of the central region and long- house architecture with a large, light -giving dome above the crossing ( here 40m high and 17m in diameter), a wide -aisled nave ( here 25m wide) and the increasing towards the center sculptural design the front facade. In contrast to the Gesù, the front facade of St. Casimir has two towers.

History

The Jesuits should support Vilnius from the Counter-Reformation in the Lithuanian Grand Duchy. One of its most important representatives of this period of the previous 17th century. was St. Andrew Bobola, who was ordained as a priest in 1622 in the Casimir's Church, having previously studied at the Jesuit University in Vilnius.

Over the centuries, the church underwent a number of devastation: in 1655 by the occupation of the city by Russian troops in 1706 by a fire in connection with the siege by the Swedes in 1749 again by fire. 1750-55 the church in the high baroque style has been refurbished, including with a magnificent high altar and the striking gilded crown above the crossing. The interior devastated Napoleon's troops in 1812 a storage room einrichteten here. After the banning of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Augustinians took over the church, later a missionary order and after the uprising in 1831, the church was converted into the Orthodox St. Nicholas Church in the Russifizierungsbemühungen the tsarist administration in 1839. During this time she was heavily rebuilt to a design by the Russian architect Nikolai Chagin ( 1864-68 ): the towers were dismantled and received onion spiers, also the front facade was changed significantly and installed an iconostasis.

After the first world war take back the Jesuits, the government of the Church, until its closure by the Soviet authorities of the Lithuanian SSR in 1949. Thereafter, it was used as a storage room for grain and wine, the interior destroyed again. After a rebuilding 1955-57 a museum of atheism in the church was opened in 1966. In 1989 the church was again returned to the Jesuits and inaugurated back in 1991.

Organ

2003 built Lithuanian organ builder Laimis Pikutis on the gallery of the church, a large three - manual organ with 45 registers and 16 ' prospectus, which using older parts of a Stumm organ, the Heinrich Voit had rebuilt in 1894 for the first time in 1968 by the German organ builder dynasty Oberlinger had been built for the town church Durlach.

Crypt

All survived the destruction notwithstanding, the crypt from the time of the first church building in the 17th century, which was only discovered in the renovation in 1991. To drawings and lyrics have received on their up to 6m high vaulted walls.