Pilaitė
1. BEEPART – WORKSHOP IN PILAITE
Pilaitė
St Archangel Michael Church and the Bernardine Monastery represent a rare example of Renaissance architecture in Lithuania. Built at the beginning of the 17th century by the initiative of the GDL Chancellor, Leonas Sapiega, this delicate church became a mausoleum for the Sapiega family.
The crypt of the Sapieha family was located in the place of honour in the Church of St Michael the Archangel – under the presbytery. The room, which is not usually open to visitors, houses 22 coffins and the sarcophagi of the founder and his relatives, which are decorated with 17th–20th century fabric and the family’s heraldry.
The Bernardine sisters who take strict vows of solitude settled in the existing monastery buildings next to the church. They were allowed to leave the premises only at times of war, plague or fire. Thanks to its remaining enclosed and uninhabited, the building has preserved a lot of the architectural details that tell about the lives of the Bernardine sisters within the monastery.
Open House Vilnius will open doors to the secured premises of the restored Church Heritage Museum, which is based in the previous monastery.
It will be a great opportunity to see not only the visible parts of the museum, but also to visit the long enclosed inner courtyard, narrow corridors, residential cells and the kitchen, along with the dining room where Sapiega family emblem is displayed.
