The church in Turgiels was built four times. The present one was built at the turn of the 20th century as a reconstruction of the previous church. Let us learn more about this history...

Turgiele - a short history of the place
Situated on the Merečanka River, Turgiele derives its name from the Lithuanian word "turgus", meaning market. Earlier the village was called Maly Merech or Mongirdovske Merech. This name, with a different geographical specification, was also adopted by many neighbouring villages from the aforementioned river. The town is situated about 30 km south-east of Vilnius and 18 km north of Soleczniki (historically called Wielkie).

In his memoirs, Waclaw Cierpinski (1928-1996) characterised the Turgiel area as follows: "A quiet, peaceful land, abundant in forests and hills, cut by the ribbon of the Mereczanka. Here and there a manor house with a linden avenue, a witness of Napoleonic wars and uprisings. Rarely a palace with columns and outbuildings. Here and there, among the forests, noblemen's farmsteads surrounded by poplars, maples and orchards. At the edge of the forests, single homesteads crouched, as if waiting for the arrival of a hungry or wounded insurgent - partisan. Small villages among the fields cut by copses and baulks, stretching along rivers, over which blackened baths - tubs - are located. In the orchards and gardens, apiaries of colourful beehives yielding excellent honey from lime, buckwheat and heather. The forests are rich in hazel, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cowberries and marvellous boletes. This part of Vilnius-Trotsky district was historically interesting. The Turgielski church founded by Wenceslas Mongird in 1578, a wooden church, burned down twice. The brick one, as we know it, is still standing today (...). The Andrzejów farmstead [bordering Turgiels] was given to General Lucjan Żeligowski for his war activities in 1920".

In April 1919, the town witnessed the march of Polish troops heading for Vilnius. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, an annual fair was held in Turgiels (8 May).

Church in Turgeli - outline of history
. The first church in Turgeli was wooden. It was built as early as 1511 by the owners of the local estate, Wenceslas and Alexander Mongird and Viktor Gabralovich. Its parish priest (until 1565) was Father Adam Jastrzębski. In 1722, the church burned down.

A second, larger church, though also wooden, was built by the Smolensk canon and Turgil pastor, Fr Stanislav Kurczbacha. A description survives in the sources: "In a cruciform figure built, unconsecrated, consecrated as the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Without any tower with a small iron cross. Walls covered with moss due to old age. Shingled roof, low stone foundation, 36 cubits long, 18 cubits wide, 9 cubits high walls.

In 1767-1824, the Turgel parish was administered by the founder of the Pavlovian Republic, Rev. Pawel Ksawery Brzostowski. The second temple was demolished, and next to the place where it stood, a third church was built from brick and stone in 1836 through the efforts of Rev. Michal Mirinovich, the then parish priest, with the contribution of Pavlov's heir Joseph Kobylinski. As the description reads: "Length of the church cubits 40, width 20; shingle roof covered. Windows in the church, in the sacristy and in the beds in general 18, and a window in a semicircle over the Great Altar".

By the end of the 19th century, the Turgel parish had a population of around 9,000 worshippers. When the third church proved too small, the decision was taken to erect a fourth church, also of brick. It was built on a rectangular plan in 1895-1909, and was realised in the form of a reconstruction of the previous one, due to the obstacles made by the partitioning authorities in the so-called partitioned territories for the construction of new churches. The author of the project was the Russian architect Alexei Polozov, a Vilnius gubernatorial engineer.

The scope of work included: the addition of side aisles. The main nave was raised on pillars erected from the walls of the previous church. A vestibule and apse were also added. A new feature was the two, four-storey, towers. The walls were made of stone and the arches and vaults of brick. The facades of the temple were covered with a layer of crushed stone with lime mortar. The building, measuring 40 m x 26 m, stood at the intersection of the roads leading from Turgiel to Taboryszki, Kamionka, Rudomin and Jashun. Behind the temple a cemetery was built, together with a chapel dedicated to St. Felix de Valois, erected by the Kobylanski family in the mid-19th century. Until the outbreak of World War II, the parish priest of Turgiels, and later also the dean, was Rev. Pawel Szepecki.

Turgiele in the 1940s
In the Second Polish Republic in Turgiels there was a general school, a post office, a health post, a pharmacy and several shops. The village was also the seat of a deanery of the Vilnius archdiocese, comprising eight parishes. Turgiels parish, with almost 11,000 worshippers at that time, was one of the largest in the archdiocese.

During the German occupation of Vilnius (1941-1944), Turgėlia remained the seat of the municipality administered by a dozen or so Lithuanian officials. A Lithuanian police station manned by 33 officers was then located next to the church. At the end of December 1943, the town was occupied by Home Army units commanded by Lt. Gracjan Frog "Szczerbiec" and the silent Lt. Adam Boryczka "Tońka". The police station was located in a wooden building and was burnt down. The policemen had earlier taken shelter in a Turgel temple. They surrendered after calling on the parish priest, Father Jozef Obrembski (1906-2011, a legendary priest in Vilnius), to stop fighting and after receiving guarantees of safety from the attackers. After being disarmed, the officers were released.

The deputy chief of counter-intelligence of the Vilnius district headquarters of the Home Army, Lieutenant Henryk Borowski "Trzmiel" testified to the security services after the war: "In the area of Rudomin and Turgiel there was the so-called Polish Republic. The Germans had no access there. The area was completely manned by Polish authorities".

From the spring of 1944 Turgiels, together with the surrounding villages, was one of the main field bases of several units of the Vilnius District of the Home Army. Photographically documented and filmed with a camera in the church and in the market square of Turgiello are the Easter celebrations on 9 and 10 April 1944 with the participation of officers of the AK district command who came specially from Vilnius (resurrection, presentation of decorations, parade). Two photographs taken at that time in this church and dozens of photographs taken in the square in front of the temple are known today.