Church of the Holy Spirit

The Church of the Holy Spirit, the Temple in honor of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles is the main Orthodox church of Lithuania, which is located in the old part of Vilnius. The church was built in 1638, and then, after a fire in 1749, it was reconstructed, according to the project of the famous representative of the Vilnius Baroque school Jonas Christupas Glaubits.

Initially, in 1597, a wooden church was built on this site, at the expense of two faithful sisters Feodora Volovich (wife of the Brest voivode) and Anna Volovich (wife of the Smolensk voivode). Later, the church became a refuge for the Orthodox Holy Trinity Brotherhood, which had recently lost its Holy Trinity Church, which passed to the Uniates. In 1634, by decree of King Vladislav IV, a new stone temple of the Holy Spirit with the main throne was built on the site of the old wooden one. In honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles.

The Vilnius Church of the Holy Spirit is the only Orthodox church in Lithuania built in accordance with the layout, in the form of a Latin cross, characteristic of baroque churches. The interior of the church is decorated with stucco and stitch sculpture, a high-quality mixture of plaster and marble, which is unusual for Orthodox churches. In the center of the temple of the Holy Spirit in a luxurious reliquary are the relics of three Orthodox saints: Anthony, John, and Eustathius. The organ of the temple, installed in 1776 by Adam Kasparini, is considered the oldest in Lithuania. Under the temple is the legendary labyrinth, which consists of 9 Gothic cellars, the longest of which is 33 meters in length.