Description of the attraction
Since the 13th century, the so-called regular canons of repentance have appeared. In Poland, they settled in Krakow, at the monastery of St. Mark and they were called "marks", and in Lithuania, based on the fact that they venerated the monastic rule of St. Augustine, they were called Augustinians. The regular canons were also distinguished by their attire: they always wore white clothes.
In 1644, the Order of the Regular Canons of Repentance built a monastery and a wooden church - the Church of St. Bartholomew for their brotherhood. A few years later, in 1655, during the Russian invasion under the command of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the church and the monastery were burnt down. In 1664, a stone chapel was erected on this place, and the church, which soon suffered the same fate - it also burned down.
In 1778, the classicist architect Martin Knackfus developed a new project. According to this project, the temple was reconstructed. In 1794, a massive uprising took place on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which then included Lithuania. It turned out to be devastating to many buildings and structures. The church of St. Bartholomew did not escape the fate of destruction.
Later, in 1823-1824, father Augustin Stodolnik, together with the architect Karol Podchashinsky, who prepared a project for a general reconstruction, the temple was reconstructed again. The architectural style of the new temple causes some controversy among researchers. For example, the famous Polish architect Juliusz Kloss defines it as naive classicism, and the Lithuanian art critic and artist Vladas Drema argues that the building belongs to the eclectic style.
As a result of the uprising of 1831, mass abolitions of the monasteries of the White Augustinians were carried out in the country. Monks from the abolished monasteries, as well as the leadership of the order, moved to the Zarechensky monastery. But in 1845 the Russian authorities abolished this monastery as well. The monks had to seek refuge in the monasteries of other orders. Priest Baltromey Poplavsky became the last parish priest of the Order of Regular Canons of Repentance. When he died, the Bernardines settled in the church, creating a Bernardine monastery here, which was also abolished after the 1864 uprising.
In 1881 the bell tower was rebuilt. This is how the church can be seen today. Today it is a Roman Catholic church named after St. Bartholomew, the fourth apostle of Jesus. The Armenian Church considers the Apostle Bartholomew to be its founder.
Not long before World War II, Redemptorist monks appeared in Vilnius. They did not receive the Church of St. Bartholomew for their use, but had the right to hold their prayers here. In 1949, the Soviet authorities closed the church. Three of the five wooden Baroque church altars were transported to the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. It is still unknown what happened to the other two. The church was given to sculptors for workshops. In 1997, the church was returned to the Vilnius community of Belarusian Catholics.
Externally, the church looks strict, as befits the buildings of classicism. The building has an elongated shape. In its front part, as if as a continuation of the triangular pediment above the main entrance, rises a single tower, with a dark brown, almost black square dome. The only decoration of the façade is the statues located in the niches of the front façade, on either side of the rectangular window above the entrance. On a triangular pediment, in the opening of a horizontal arched window, there is a statue of the crucified Jesus. The first tier of the tower differs from the rest of the structure in the slightly curved shapes of arched windows and side front walls.
