Description of the attraction
On Snipishki, a district of the city of Vilnius, located on the right bank of the Villy River, there is a majestic and austere Church of St. Raphael the Archangel. In general, the architecture of the temple belongs to the Baroque style, however, the altar and towers, towering on either side of the building, reflect the architectural transition between Baroque and Rococo.
The church was built between 1702 and 1709 by the famous Lithuanian philanthropist Nicholas Koshitsas with the financial support of the voivode Kazimir Sapieha and hetman Mikhail Radziwill. It was originally intended for the Jesuits. In 1740 the Jesuits decided to establish a Jesuit monastery at the church, which operated until 1773, until the abolition of the Jesuit order.
For more than twenty years, the monastery became the property of PRs. In 1792, PRs sold the temple to the tsarist government. By government order, barracks were set up in the buildings of the monastery and in the church itself.
In 1812, Vilnius was occupied by Napoleon, who also did not spare the remarkable architectural heritage and began to use the church as an armory. The damage from the stay of the French warehouses was significant for the building of the temple and its interior. The temple was empty until 1824, when it was restored and became a parish church. The calm did not last long. Still not recovering from the destructive invasion of the French, the building was subjected to new tests. In 1832, a Russian military warehouse was placed there.
In 1860, the temple was returned to the believers again. He became a parish. After that, the temple was no longer closed. Nowadays, the Roman Catholic Church of St. Archangel Raphael is a functioning church. It reads services in Lithuanian and Polish.
In 1975, the church was returned to its previous appearance, through a complete restoration of the exterior and interior. Today, everyone can join history, visit this remarkable architectural monument and see it in all its strict grandeur.
The building of the temple is rectangular, on the front side, on the sides of the temple, two towers rise, which, in an ensemble with a triangular pediment of the building itself in the middle, look like a crown on it. On the second tier, in niches located on the sides of the large central window above the portal, there are plaster sculptures of the Archangel Raphael and Joseph Kalasantius, the founder and progenitor of the order of PR. In 1752, the architect Jan Valent Diederstein, presumably together with Jan Nezemkowski, built two more tiers of towers - the third and fourth. The graceful composition of both towers with columns, subtly curved cornices, gives the facade an aura of grace and splendor. The architectural forms of both towers of the temple clearly show the transition from the Baroque style to the Rococo style. Complicated helmets are not quite typical for the Baroque. The side fronts have a restrained and austere look. At the top of the pediment, at the back of the temple, there is a small turret that perfectly complements the overall ensemble.
The walls of the church are white-stone in color, as well as the walls of the buildings of the adjacent monastery. The roofs of all these buildings, including the church itself, are painted red.
The interior of the church is notable primarily for the large altar with many columns, installed on high pedestals, and many wonderful sculptures. All of this magnificent decoration is topped by a large painting, by the famous Polish artist, depicting the Archangel Raphael.
The paintings are framed with gold frames. Columns and sculptures are white. The bases and tops of the columns are golden. All sculptural figures have wings, also painted in the color of gold. Chandeliers hanging from the arched ceiling are also white and gold. This simple combination of white and gold gives the church a unique austere grandeur, from which it exudes purity and purity.
