Vilnius Cathedral Basilica of St Stanislaus and St Ladislaus
Neoclassical cathedral on Cathedral Square, with the Chapel of St Casimir and royal crypts below.
The cathedral stands on the site where a pagan temple and then Lithuania's first Christian church were raised, and it has been rebuilt many times since the fourteenth century. The building seen today was remodelled between 1783 and 1801 by Laurynas Gucevicius, who gave it a severe Neoclassical form: a six-column Doric portico, a broad triangular pediment and a long colonnaded flank. Three statues of saints crown the roofline, replacing Soviet-era removals restored in 1996.
Inside, the Baroque Chapel of St Casimir, completed in 1636 under the Vasa kings, holds the silver sarcophagus of Lithuania's patron saint beneath a marble and stucco dome. The crypts beneath the presbytery contain the remains of rulers including Alexander Jagiellon and the wives of Sigismund Augustus, together with fragments of fourteenth-century frescoes. The free-standing bell tower on the square grew from a defensive tower of the lower castle and carries the oldest clock in the city.
Highlights
- Neoclassical portico by Laurynas Gucevicius, completed in 1801
- Baroque Chapel of St Casimir with its silver sarcophagus
- Royal crypts holding Grand Dukes and Polish-Lithuanian queens
- Free-standing 57-metre bell tower with the city's oldest clock
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