The country’s finest example of Italian baroque architecture can be seen at the Pazaislis Monastery and church in Kaunas, the largest monastery complex in Lithuania.
Built in 1662 by the order of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, four Italian architects designed the church and monastery, while sculptors of Lombardy completed the frescos and plaster casts.
Converted to an Orthodox church by the Russians in 1832, the church was also used as an archive, a psychiatric hospital and an art gallery in its time before being returned to the Catholic order in the 1990s and reconstructed to its former glory.
Every year, the Pazaislis Monastery plays hosts to an international music festival. If you visit during the summer months, you won’t be able to miss it.
Pazaislis monastery and church is on a peninsula in the Kaunas Reservoir near the Kaunas Yacht Club.
