Birštonas Church of St. Anthony of Padua

This graceful Neo-Gothic red-brick church has adorned Birštonas since the beginning of the 20th century. The small, harmoniously proportioned church is the work of Vaclovas Michnevičius, the most respected church architect of the time. According to historical sources, it is the fourth church in Birštonas. The first church in Birštonas probably stood here as early as 1529 but fell into decay, as the governors of the residence were not zealous Catholics. When Birštonas passed to the pious nobles of Hungarian origin Kasper Horvat and his wife Kotryna Užali, King Sigismund Vasa signed the foundation charter for a new church in 1609. It was devastated in 1655 during the wars with the Russians and Swedes. The third church, of St. Thaddeus the Apostle, was built only in 1787 on the site of today's Jonas Basanavičius Square. It served until the end of the 19th century. Fr. Albertas Urbša, who came here as parish priest in 1899, took on the project of a new church. A building committee was set up, donations were collected and charity concerts were organised for holidaymakers. After his death in 1904, Fr. Jonas Karvelis took over the construction. Work gathered pace when a brick factory was built in Birštonas specifically for it. The church was finally consecrated in 1909 and dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua. The interior is decorated with wooden altars by Adomas Karalius, one of the most famous craftsmen of the time, and in the left nave you can see a painting of St. Joseph that once adorned the old wooden church in the 17th–18th centuries. The paintings were by Nikodemas Silvanavičius; two of his works have been restored and are kept in the Birštonas Sacral Museum. The impressive stained-glass windows depicting the Grand Dukes of Lithuania were created by Vytautas Švarlys and Andrius Giedrimas in 1987 for the 600th anniversary of the Christianisation of Lithuania. Interestingly, they had to work secretly in garages so that the Soviet authorities would not find out about them.