Neglected churches symbolize the challenges facing religious communities in Vilnius today. It is said that from any point in Vilnius you can see at least three churches. There are probably more. Almost all these churches and places of worship, Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish or Protestant, were given new, often undignified functions during the Soviet occupation. The buildings are being restored to their former glory. A place that the Soviets used to store sugar and corn. Or a building for storing large rolls of newspaper. One would expect these places to be on the outskirts of a city, where most of the factories and warehouses were located in the Soviet era. However, these places are located in the heart of the old town of Vilnius in Lithuania. These are buildings that are considered the most beautiful in the city by both residents and tourists. They are the churches of Vilnius. These churches were seriously damaged during the long occupation of the country by the Soviet Union.
Desecration of churches in Vilnius
One of these churches is the baroque church of Saint Philip and Saint James with double towers, which was built in the 17th and 18th centuries. The church is located on Lukiškių Square, a few steps away from a huge statue of Lenin, which used to overlook the city. The 17th-century painting of the Blessed Mother of Compassion on the high altar was famous throughout the Catholic world for its miracles. After the war, this church was turned into a warehouse for fruit and vegetables. In 1955 the building was taken over by the Opera and Ballet Theater. They used it to store costumes and props.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church also underwent a change in function under Soviet rule. In this case, it just wasn’t about the storage of perishables or props. The change here was much more drastic. The church was built in 1555 on a small courtyard on Vokiečių gatvė (Germany Street). The Soviets demolished the entire interior, after which an extra floor was installed in the building, splitting the space into two parts. The top floor was converted into a sports hall, the bottom into a craft workshop. As with many converted churches, it took years of research and renovation to restore the interior to its former glory.
After Lithuania’s independence, detailed research was carried out with the aim of restoring the ruins of Vilnius as faithfully as possible . For some churches, old photos from around the turn of the century were the only starting point for restoring the interiors of these churches. In the case of the Evangelical Lutheran church, which was very seriously damaged, even photographs no longer provided any definitive information about the former interior of the building. Letters were sent to Lutherans abroad asking how they remembered the interior. It took more than 4 years to restore the church. This is an especially impressive feat, as the church was completely gutted and modified. The organ had been demolished, along with the rood loft and pulpit. Statues had to be re-sculpted and intricate wooden moldings had to be re-crafted.
Further along in the Old Town is the Church of St. Casimir. This Baroque church, built in the style of the famous Il Gesù church in Rome, was completed in 1616. After the occupation it was used as a wine storage facility, after which it was transformed into the Museum of Atheism in 1961. The first exhibition was about instruments of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition.
Adaptation to Soviet ideology
Stalin, for whom danger lurked around every corner and who saw enemies everywhere, considered the Pope a particularly dangerous opponent. Because Lithuania was the only Catholic country in the Soviet Union, the country and the church became a prime target for the authorities. It was a period of cultural, social and political adjustment to Soviet ideology, a period also called the dark years.
During the four years from 1944 to 1948, immediately after the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the greatest repression against the Catholic Church was carried out. A Council for Religious Affairs was established and followed as a general policy, sanctioned by the Communist Party in Moscow, to weaken the Church and undermine its authority. As a result, most churches, mainly in the cities, were closed and converted for other purposes. In Vilnius, 23 of the 34 Catholic churches were closed.
The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or the Visitandines Church, was literally the highlight of the city for more than 200 years. It was built in the 16th century. Now it offers convicts a beautiful view of the city. It was converted into a prison shortly after the war and remains so to this day.
This was a special feature of life in the countries formerly occupied by the Soviet Union. People deemed not dangerous enough to be deported to Siberia were imprisoned, requiring a prison infrastructure to accommodate the growing number of undesirables. Churches were frequently used for this.
One of the first decrees of the Council for Religious Affairs banned religious education in schools in 1944. Laws against religious education in churches soon followed . In an attempt to take over the church’s administrative duties, the Council began requiring all priests who wished to continue their work to register with local authorities to obtain the necessary certificate for a priest.
As was the case in all facets of public life, here too the KGB was involved in the process. Four of Lithuania’s five bishops were arrested and deported. The number of dioceses was reduced from six to three , all of which fell under state control.
The country lost half its clergy as more than 250 people emigrated west and more than 360 were arrested. Nuns, priests and monks were sent to the countryside , where many churches remained open.
The church on Pylimo gatvé, built in a strict classical style in 1835, looks a bit like the grand Catholic churches of the Old City. It was stripped of all decorations and ,renovated, into the Kronika cinema, just after the Second World War. Soviet documentaries were shown continuously from then on.
After independence, the building had to suffer again. It was not fortunate enough to be renovated like the other churches in the early 1990s. W hen government funding for restoration ran out in the mid-1990s, most congregations turned to their overseas brothers or to their own members. This church had neither. The plastered walls are visibly decaying and the large ceiling has already been removed due to constant leaks.
All but three of the city’s Catholic churches have been returned to the Church, and most of the others have been restored, some better than others. The cathedral, the ,sanctuary of the nation,, was closed after the war until it was transformed into an art gallery in 1956. It was reasonably maintained and survived a Soviet plan to turn it into a tractor repair shop.
Restoration of the soul
Vilnius Cathedral has special significance for Lithuanians, especially in relation to the restoration of the country’s independence. Yet there was also a small group of churches that remained open during the entire occupation. Two examples are the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Church of Peter and Paul in Vilnius. The services there were poorly attended, mainly by civilians who had little to lose and could still remember the days before the Second World War. Late at night, but also in the early hours of the morning, people used these churches to get married or to baptize their children. Priests used them to bless graves in advance, even if they did not go to the funeral themselves.
It was obviously impossible for members of the Communist Party to be openly religious or go to church. They kept their piety to themselves and professed their faith behind closed doors.
It seems that the wounds inflicted by more than 50 years of Soviet occupation are slowly fading. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in Vilnius to restore its ancient heritage to its full glory. There are still churches that are closed and used as storage space.