Museum of Lithuanian Architecture

The Museum of Lithuanian Architecture is located in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. It was founded in 1968 as a branch of the National Museum of Lithuania. In 1972, the first exhibition of Lithuanian architecture was held in the church of St. Michael, which is an outstanding monument of Renaissance architecture. Since then, the museum is located in the Bernardine monastery adjacent to the church and today is included in the list of museums of the Center for Cultural Heritage of the country. In addition, the church houses the family mausoleum of the Lithuanian hetman Leonas Sapiega.

The exterior architecture of the museum building surprisingly harmoniously combines the features of the Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic. In 1976, the exposition of the museum was placed in the corridor adjacent to the church of St. Michael Bernardine Monastery, and in 1986 the museum occupied the entire monastery. The museum’s extensive collection consists of city plans, drawings and maps, drawings and layouts, architectural documents and first photographs. Chronologically, the exposition of the museum is divided into two parts: architecture of 1918-1940 and architecture of 1944-1990.