Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Vilnius

Step inside the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Vilnius and almost nothing is left plain: walls, vaults and the dome are covered in white stucco, with more than two thousand figures, garlands, saints, angels and symbolic scenes moulded across the interior. Compared with the restrained white exterior, with its two bell towers, round below and octagonal above, the effect is of entering a sculpted cave of light, and the church is counted among the masterpieces of Baroque in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

It was founded by Michał Kazimierz Pac, Grand Hetman of Lithuania and Voivode of Vilnius, as a thanksgiving for the city's liberation after the Russian occupation of 1655-1661. The foundation stone was laid on 29 June 1668 on the site of an older wooden church that had burned in 1594 and been rebuilt in 1609-1616, and the design is attributed to Jan Zaor of Kraków, with Giovanni Battista Frediani finishing the building. The structure was largely done by 1676, consecration followed in 1701 and decoration continued until about 1704. The stucco work is by the Italian masters Giovanni Pietro Perti and Giovanni Maria Galli. The church served the Canons Regular of the Lateran, whose monastery stands beside it.

Pac asked to be buried under the threshold of the main entrance, so that everyone entering would walk over him; his epitaph reads, in Latin, Here lies a sinner. Among later additions are a large boat-shaped chandelier of brass and glass hung in 1905, a life-size wooden figure of Christ in Spanish Baroque style, and Turkish war drums said to have been taken at the Battle of Khotyn in 1673. The church stands on a low hill near the Neris river in Antakalnis, a district of Vilnius on the old road towards Nemenčinė.

Getting there

The church is in the Antakalnis district of Vilnius, outside the Old Town. The nearest airport is Vilnius International Airport (VNO), about 7 km away.