The article describes the history of the Vilnius Cathedral, beginning with its creation and foundation closely associated with Ladislaus Jagiello and Jadwiga, as well as the introduction of Andrew of Vasilev, a Pole, of the Order of Friars Minor, as Bishop of Vilnius. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1863, T:7, pp. 243-244, 253., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Vilnius Cathedral Church.

The history of this church is closely connected with the history of Vilnius, as its foundation dates back to the times of the first apostolic journey to Lithuania of the newly converted Jogaila and the holy Jadwiga. All the disasters that have befallen the city in the last five centuries have destroyed the walls of this temple, which, after being destroyed by fires several times, has always recovered from the ruins, and has always been more beautiful, always bringing the faithful together at its altars.

The history of Vilnius Cathedral could be approached from two points of view. Firstly, from a spiritual point of view, i.e. looking at it as the capital of the Vilnius bishops, depicting the struggle between Catholicism and paganism, listing all the efforts, more or less successful, unselfish or self-interested, of the clergy during the five centuries of Christianity's existence in Lithuania, and finally showing what it did under its influence for the education of the people, for the dissemination of the principles of harmony and brotherly love among the masses; secondly: secondly, on the material side, i.e. by writing down faithfully, as far as the historical sources allow, all the changes that the building itself has undergone from the time of its foundation until the present day.

There is no doubt that the first task would be more beneficial to the general public; but it is a subject for a great deal of historical work which we do not feel able to carry out conscientiously, and for this reason we must limit ourselves to sketching the history of the building itself. Each according to his ability. As to the time of its foundation, all historians agree that the church was completed and consecrated in 1388, on 7 May, by Archbishop H. H. H. H., the Archbishop of the city, and that it was consecrated in 1388. As to the time of its foundation, all historians agree that the church was completed and consecrated in 1388 on 7 May by Bodzanta, Archbishop of Gniezno, who on the following day, on the feast of St Stanislaus, whose feast the church was dedicated to, installed as the first Bishop of Vilnius Andrius of Vasilev, or Vasilon, Vagyta, of the Jastrzębiec family, a Pole, of the Order of Friars Minor, Bishop of Ceretia, one-time confessor to Queen Elizabeth of Hungary, an exemplary husband and renowned preacher.

They also agree as to the place where the temple was erected, designating it in the Swin-Toroha valley, at the foot of the upper castle, within the crooked castle, on the spot where the temple of Perkun stood and the eternal fire of Znicza, guarded by the Wajdelots, was burning. According to Balinski, the pagan temple was made of wood, while the statue of Perkun stood a little further away, on the same site as today's cathedral.

Narbut, on the other hand, believes that Perkun's temple was built of stone and that the cathedral church was later erected on the same walls, and supports his assumption with the fact that the first decision to demolish the idolatry was made on 10 March 1387. Comparing this date with the date of the church's consecration, he finds it impossible that, given the state of the art of building at that time, it would have been possible in such a short period of time to erect an edifice so impressive from the foundations, decorate it inside and out, and consecrate it.

Judging the shape of the original cathedral from Knallus' drawings in Narbut's minor works, we are entitled to concur with the opinion of the first historian of Lithuania, as the unusual width of the temple and its entire shape suggest that its walls must have previously formed some kind of enclosure without a roof; but again, nothing can serve as a guarantee of the authenticity of these drawings by Knallus.

Narbut's opinion is further supported by the fact that in the original Christian church, when converting pagans, temples of the true faith were usually established where pagan idolatries had previously been built, or where there were groves, trees, stones, and wildernesses worshipped by pagans or dedicated to any deity; For it took an axe to strike at the rotten trunk of paganism to make the dawn of Christianity shine in Lithuania and, on the ashes of Zinc that had been extinguished, the Cross of the Lord spread its arms over those gathered at the feet of the newly baptised. But for the new light to shine into the darkness of hearts and minds and force them to relinquish the superstitions of old, there had to be a palpable conviction of the ineptitude of the gods of paganism, whose vengeance the Lithuanians feared.

For a people consumed and battered by slavery, the new faith had to appear strong and majestic. This explains the magnificence of Jogaila's and Jadwiga's apostolic journeys and the violent means used to demolish the idolatry. Watching this ruin, paganism shuddered at the sight of such sacrilege, wept secretly over the disrespect for the honour of ancestors and the faith of the ancients, but there was no resistance anywhere, because the people had no will of their own. The prince spoke for them, and when this was the prince's will, when it was seen that the pagan deities could be destroyed, beheaded and killed with impunity, the pagan population cooled down and declared that they wanted to be baptised. This willingness, unconscious at first, perhaps with the gifts of white cloth robes offered at baptism in mind, was the source of Lithuania's rebirth.

In accepting Christianity, it had to adopt from its neighbours their customs and laws. Returning to the Vilnius Cathedral, to corroborate Narbut's evidence that this temple was nothing more than a converted pagan idolatry, we can quote the letter of St Gregory the Pope to St Augustine, apostolic in the Brythonic islands, in which precisely similar measures are recommended. There is probably a large gap of time, but the customs of the Church did not change, and the introduction of the Holy Faith in Lithuania was done in exactly the same way. This letter from the Pope reads as follows:

"Christians are not to be eager in destroying pagan temples, but should only overthrow the idols of their idols, sprinkle them with holy water, erect altars and place in them the relics of saints. If these temples are thoroughly built, it is only necessary to change the object of worship in them, and to replace the evil spirit with the image of the true God; and this in order that the people, seeing that their temples are destroyed, may voluntarily renounce their errors, and, knowing and praising the true God, may more readily flock to the places to which they are accustomed." .

The journal of a journey of the great Hospitaller of the Order, Count Conrad Kyburg, who visited Vilnius in 1397 as a special envoy from the Prussian Teutonic Knights to Vytautas, may give us the best idea of the internal structure of the original cathedral. This diary was probably written to satisfy the curiosity of some high-ranking person friendly to the Order, and not for the Order itself; we can infer this from the fact that Count Kyburg, in his account, is silent as to why he travelled to Vilnius, skims over what he achieved, and mainly draws attention to the customs and way of life of the nation.

After describing the visit of the Bishop of Vilnius and the feast he offered to the distinguished guests, Count Kyburg continues his diary in the following way: 'Towards evening a guide sent from the Bishop arrived, a venerable priest with white hair on his beard and head. When we went with him to the church, it was already close to sunset. Our new companion was a member of the chapter, his name was Berwaldus, a German, apparently from Augsburg. The appearance of this cathedral is astonishing in its vastness: it is an oblong quadrangle, built of brick and fieldstone, and has the appearance of a castle rather than a temple. It was a Lithuanian idolatry, the exterior of the walls unchanged except for the front one, decorated in the present taste, the interior and the number of windows.

The roof is huge, adequate for the width of the building, supported by pillars stretching across the ceiling, with four turrets at the corners, two on each side, and three others, one above the front exhibition, one in the middle of the roof, and one at the back. This front exhibition is triangular, not covered with any ornaments; in its windows hang bells, but small. In the middle, three rows of thick pillars divide the church into four naves.

The great altar stands on the site of a pagan, eternally burning bonfire, at a considerable distance from the back wall; behind it is a pillar, in front of it a pillar, so only standing from the side one can see the priest celebrating mass. There are many altars in the depths of the aisles and by the pillars, with little ornamentation; there are also partitions in the shape of chapels, surrounded by bars, not at all sophisticated. However, the standing and hanging candlesticks, the under-lamp candlesticks (candelabra) of expensive metal shine; some paintings are costly, the sacristy is quite prosperous.

There are no surpluses. The darkness falling in this, by its very nature, rather dark temple, exerted a kind of melancholic charm on us. The lamps, still burning here and there, began to glow more and more vividly. The monotonous singing of the choristers, repeating psalms in the depths of one nave, soon ceased, and we saw a dazzling light at the end of the right-hand nave; these were candles lit on the altar of St John the Baptist. The people, though numerous, almost disappeared in the vastness of the edifice, and only a crowd could be seen under the altar. We heard the chanting of the priest intoning Vespers, then choral singing very harmonious.

After the singing of the psalm, on the upper gallery, which each aisle had on the side of the main entrance, almost over our heads, there was the sound of musical instruments: trumpets, oboes, drums, huge timpani, made such a sound and rumble that we understood to hear the uproar of war pretending. But it was all somehow harmonious, musical; the thundering tones weakened slowly and finally merged with a beautiful male voice, strongly and clearly singing: "Gloria Patri et Filio etc.".

It seems, goes on to remark Count Kyburg, that this manner (with such sonorous music and perfect singing) of celebrating the service is more appropriate for a people who, having recently rejected idolatry, were in need of a sensual impression in order to be mentally absorbed by the worship of the true God. At the words "Gloria Patri", the people fell on their faces, and we repeated the same, as if we had been visibly overwhelmed by the Holy Trinity. During the singing of the Magnificat, the bells rang out, four in number. It is true that there is a round tower just before the entrance to the church, but no bells can be seen on it; it stands without a top, more like a fortified tower than a belfry. The windows are high but narrow and irregularly spaced.

Vladislovas Jogaila, although a recent convert, believed deeply in the Christian God and, in his concern for the well-being of the Church in Lithuania, generously endowed the cathedral and the Vilnius chapter. These endowments were further augmented by Ladislaus, who allocated a large part of the city of Vilnius to the church and its bishops. In addition, the bishop received a brick house, for permanent residence for himself and his successors, within the Lower Castle. In the following years, however, amidst the war effort, Grand Duke Vytautas did not forget to enrich the Vilnius Cathedral Church more and more.

With his privilege from Vilnius in 1396, and with the consent and permission of King Vladislav, Vytautas granted the chapter of the same church the estate called Cudzieniškės, near Medininkai castle, with the obligation to say mass almost every day for the souls of his deceased brothers, the dukes: Kaźmierz Korygiełło and Aleksander Wigunt. A year later, Vladislovas Jogaila, together with Grand Duke Vytautas, rewarding Andrzej the bishop for his total dedication to his person and property, despite numerous dangers connected with his work on spreading the principles of Christianity among the neophytes, provided him with an income from their treasury of two hundred marks a year, until peace between Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights came to an end.

In such a state, as we have described above, the church did not survive long. In the great fire in the lower castle, started by the grand ducal stables, it burned to the ground at the end of 1399. Despite the many other terrible disasters that struck the country that year, Grand Duke Vytautas, together with his wife Anna, found the means to rebuild the cathedral church. The new church, in the Gothic style, soon rose from the rubble, much more magnificent and splendid than before.

The good relations with Germany at that time made it possible to bring from there skilled craftsmen and building materials that could not be found locally or could not be adequately prepared. The internal layout of the church is not mentioned in contemporary chronicles or in later memoirs, especially that the church built by Vytautas survived only one century after the death of its founder, as it completely burnt down in 1530.

Narbut, in his minor writings, mentions a legend about the altar of the Holy Cross. This legend, unsupported by any historical document, can only serve as a testimony to the religious dispositions of our people. Every people, in their youthful age, believes, if we may say so, in the senses; their imagination, barely freed from the bonds of superstition and superstition, sees power only in supernatural things, searches for extraordinary miracles, not knowing how to perceive that miracle without beginning and end which, at every moment of the life of nature and society, manifests itself powerfully and should strike the mind more than any supernatural tales.

Such a disposition of the Lithuanian people in the early days of their Christian life had to create legends full of mystery and wonder, contrary to old habits. The legend given by Narbut is as follows: After the pagan idolatry was abolished at Svatosh, a holy cross was erected on the site of the former pagan altars; when the church was rebuilt again, the cross was abandoned to be renewed. However, after the completion of Vytautas' church in 1407 and its consecration on the fourth Sunday after Easter, one pious priest, who had apparently come from the village and was old and bent, regretted that he had not found the old emblem of the Christian faith in the new church.

At first Bishop Nikolai paid little attention to the words of the elderly man. One day, however, when the bishop was kneeling at the lectern during a morning service in the cathedral, he was overcome by a dream in which he saw Bishop Andrew carrying a large wooden cross out of the sacristy, who, after nodding at the kneeling bishop, stuck the cross in the middle of the church and disappeared. The recounting of this dream brought to mind this old man, unknown to him, who reminded him of the cross stuck in the middle of the old church, adding that not restoring this memento was a disrespect to the past and an insult to the church.

The matter soon came to the attention of Vytautas, who allocated the cost of erecting an altar of the Holy Cross in the midst of the church, following the example of Krakow's cathedral. So a simple wooden cross was erected, darkly varnished, with a statue of the crucified Saviour, a bizarre ivory cast, the gift of Father Vytautas. In front of the cross was a mensa in the likeness of an urn, raised by two steps, with a bronze balustrade around it. Despite several fires, the Holy Cross altar survived until the last restoration of the church; the statue of the Saviour is still kept in the Vilnius treasury and is carried out during the Resurrection.

After the church was destroyed by fire in 1530, King Sigismund I and Bishop Jan of Vilnius set about finding the means to rebuild the new church, entrusting the work to the architect Bernard Zenobi, who had been brought from Italy, and the church was consecrated 4 years later. In 1610, the cathedral fell victim to a conflagration and was rebuilt again in 1632 under the bishopric of the famous memory of Abraham Wojna. Looking at Knallus' drawings, we see two lofty towers of light construction, which apparently did not last long, because already in the 18th century, the church was left with only one clock tower, on sturdy oak trammels, supported here and there by masonry pillars, standing straight on the bulbous vaulted chapel, under the name of the Blessed Virgin.

This tower collapsed in 1769 on 7 September. Four vicars of the singing course killed the chapel vault on the spot, two other priests knocked down the church vault, which collapsed between the last pillars. The damage to the whole church was so extensive that even the cathedral service had to be moved to St John's Academic Church. In 1777, Bishop Ignatius duke Massalsky set about restoring the cathedral church, following a plan by architect Lawrence Gucevičius, a professor at the High School of Lithuania. The bishop was obliged to pay 8,000 red zlotys a year from his own coffers towards the cost of the reconstruction.

IN WILNA. (Completion.)

The death of Bishop Massalski in 1794 d. 28 June in Warsaw caused the work to be suspended for several years, all the more so because, after the bishop's death, his heirs refused to pay the sum Massalski had earmarked for the restoration of the cathedral. It was precisely at this time, when the process with the heirs had not yet been completed, that Wawrzyniec Gucewicz died, and so it was necessary to entrust the further execution of the work to Professor Szulc, who, after the completion of the process with the Potocki family who had inherited Massalski's cathedral, and with the help of the donations of the new Bishop Jan Kossakowski and the Vilnius Chapter, was finally able to complete the work started by his predecessor. On 28 September 1801, Bishop Kossakowski consecrated the already completed magnificent building.

Gucevičius only redid the vaults, compared the chapels with one another and made new ones like them, combined the various parts into one harmonious and graceful whole, crowned them with one altar and raised the centre, i.e. the church proper, by a third, decorating it with an uninterrupted Doric cornice. The front of the church consists of an antechamber supported by six colossal columns. It occupies the entire width of the church itself without the chapels.

It is topped with a triangular pediment, decorated with a relief ("Noah's Sacrifice") by the woodcarver Righi, brought to Vilnius by Bishop Massalsky. The cornices on the façade and around the church are of hewn stone, decorated with carving. The roof of the pediment has three statues: of St Helen in the middle with a gilded cross, and of St Stanislaus and St Casimir on the sides; besides these, in the niches of the front wall, there are statues of the four Evangelists, Moses and Abraham, carved by the same Righi. At present, the cathedral is in the shape of an elongated quadrangle, with chapels protruding from it at the four corners, which are joined by light colonnades on the sides to form side wings, one of which is decorated with statues of Polish kings, and the other with statues of saints of the Society of Jesus.

Inside, the church is illuminated by sixteen windows in the side walls and three in the rear wall, one of which is semicircular above the great altar. The church's basket vault, decorated with projections in octagonal coffers, is supported by two rows of huge quadrangular columns, dividing the church into three naves. In addition to the high altar, rising to half a cubit, there is the presbytery with the canonical altar, the bishop's throne and the prelates' stalls, separated from the rest of the church by a lattice and rising to two aisles. The vicar's altar contains a painting by Franciszek Smuglewicz depicting the martyrdom of St Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow.

A magnificent tabernacle, carved from silver and made in Augsburg, is placed on the canonical altar. On the side walls, between the pilasters under the cornice, we find 16 paintings by Villani, depicting scenes from the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, from the creation of Adam and Eve to Pentecost. On the central pillars, paintings of the Twelve Apostles by F. Smuglewicz. The whole is full of solemn simplicity and majesty at the same time. The cathedral has ten chapels, the entrance to which is from inside the church.

The limited space of a journalistic article does not allow us to describe all of them in detail, so we must limit ourselves to a brief description of those which, either because of the historical memories attached to them or for other reasons, deserve special attention. The first place among them is undoubtedly occupied by the Chapel of St Casimir, built entirely of sandstone, with the most beautiful Italian marble inside and built in the Doric order.

Above the chapel, beneath the cross, one can see a large copper brass knob, lavishly gilded in fire. It used to be famous among the common people for its pure gold and this was probably the reason why in 1706 the Swedes shot at this knob from the windows of the rooms above the castle gate. Traces of this are still visible. It is said that the Swedish colonel Diekor, looking through a telescope at the damage, became convinced of the falsity of the claim and probably ordered the game to be abandoned.

Inside the chapel, twelve pilasters of mottled brown marble in the Ionic order decorate its walls. In the niches between the flat pillars are statues (silver-plated, according to a learned scholar of antiquityThe death of Bishop Massalski in 1794 d. Massalski's death on 28 June in Warsaw caused the work to be suspended for several years, all the more so because, after the bishop's passing, his heirs refused to pay the sum Massalski had intended for the restoration of the cathedral.

It was precisely at this time, when the process with the heirs had not yet been completed, that Wawrzyniec Gucewicz died, and so it was necessary to entrust the continuation of the work to Professor Szulc, who, after the completion of the process with the Potocki family who had inherited Massalski's cathedral, and with the help of the donations of the new Bishop Jan Kossakowski and the Vilnius Chapter, was finally able to complete the work started by his predecessor. On 28 September 1801, Bishop Kossakowski consecrated the already completed magnificent building.

Gucevičius only redid the vaults, compared the chapels with one another and made new ones like them, combined the various parts into one harmonious and graceful whole, crowned them with one altar and raised the centre, i.e. the church proper, by a third, decorating it with an uninterrupted Doric cornice. The front of the church consists of an antechamber supported by six colossal columns. It occupies the entire width of the church itself without the chapels.

It is topped with a triangular pediment, decorated with a relief ("Noah's Sacrifice") by the woodcarver Righi, brought to Vilnius by Bishop Massalsky. The cornices on the façade and around the church are of hewn stone, decorated with carving. On the roof of the frontispiece there are three statues: of St Helen in the middle, with a gilded cross, and on the sides, of St Stanislaus and St Casimir; besides these, in the niches of the front wall, there are statues of the four Evangelists, Moses and Abraham, carved by the same Righi.

At present, the cathedral is in the shape of an elongated quadrangle, with chapels protruding from it at the four corners, which are joined by light colonnades on the sides to form side wings, one of which is decorated with statues of Polish kings, and the other with statues of saints of the Society of Jesus. Inside, the church is illuminated by sixteen windows in the side walls and three in the rear wall, one of which is semicircular above the great altar.

The church's basket vault, decorated with projections in octagonal coffers, is supported by two rows of huge quadrangular columns, dividing the church into three naves. In addition to the great altar, raised one and a half cubits high, there is the presbytery with the canonical altar, the bishop's throne and the prelates' stalls, separated from the rest of the church by a lattice and rising into two aisles. The vicar's altar contains a painting by Franciszek Smuglewicz depicting the martyrdom of St Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow.

A magnificent tabernacle, carved from silver and made in Augsburg, is placed on the canonical altar. On the side walls, between the pilasters under the cornice, we find 16 paintings by Villani, depicting scenes from the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, from the creation of Adam and Eve to Pentecost. On the central pillars, paintings of the twelve apostles by F. Smuglewicz. The whole is full of solemn simplicity and majesty at the same time. The cathedral has ten chapels, the entrance to which is from inside the church.

The limited space of a journalistic article does not allow us to describe all of them in detail, so we must limit ourselves to a brief description of those which, either because of the historical memories attached to them or for other reasons, deserve special attention. The first of these is unquestionably the Chapel of St Casimir, built in the Doric order, all in sandstone and with the finest Italian marble inside. Above the chapel, a large copper brass knob, richly gilded in fire, can be seen above the lantern under the cross.

It used to be famous among the common people for its pure gold and this was probably the reason why in 1706 the Swedes shot at this knob from the windows of the rooms above the castle gate. Traces of this are still visible. It is said that the Swedish colonel Diekor, looking through a telescope at the damage, became convinced of the falsity of the report and probably ordered the game to be abandoned. Inside the chapel, twelve pilasters of mottled brown marble in the Ionic order decorate its walls. In the niches between the pillars are statues (silver-plated, according to the late M. Homolicki, a scholar of Vilnius antiquities) bearing some resemblance to Sigismund the Old, Ladislaus Varna, St Casimir and other kings and princes of the Jagiellonian family.

In the altar is an image of St Casimir, with a silver-plated wooden paludament and gilded tassels. Above this image is a wooden coffin, made of thick dreadlocks, covered with silver sheets (weighing 3,000 lbs). This coffin rests on two silver eagles of intricate workmanship and carries a silver statue of St Casimir, with a cross in the right hand and a lily in the left. On the side walls of the chapel are two large paintings (al fresco) by Dunckers depicting St Casimir's resurrection of the maiden Ursula and the corpse of the saint lying in the coffin before its exportation.

Reproductions of these paintings can be seen in Mr Wilczyński's exquisite edition. This once royal chapel, originally built by Casimir IV Jagiellon under the invocation of the Virgin Mary, St Stanislaus and St Andrew, housed the royal tombs. After the fire of 1530, it was renovated by Zygmunt Stary, and then by Zygmunt III, it was built from hewn stone in the place of a passage corridor from the palace into a spacious square, and finally completed by Wladyslaw IV in 1636. The solemn transfer of St Casimir's remains took place on 4 August 1636, in the presence of King Vladislav IV, the papal nuncio Marius Pilonard, and all the distinguished lords and dignitaries of Lithuania and the Crown.

To commemorate this solemn ceremony, a large marble plaque was set into the chapel's outer wall, crowned with a shield with the state coat of arms and an appropriate inscription. A small portable pulpit in the St Casimir's Chapel is worthy of note as a monument of old-fashioned sculptural art. It is in the shape of a chalice seated on a flying eagle. From it, preachers addressed the royal family, who listened to the service from a rich tribune set above the main door. A covered gallery led to this tribune from the castle.

The second chapel, known as the bishop's chapel, contains a large altar with a painting by Jan Bork from 1690, transferred from the All Saints' Church. In the shops of this chapel lie the remains of some Vilnius bishops, such as: Jan of the Dukes of Lithuania, Jerzy Tyszkiewicz, Jan Zawisza, Michal Zienkowicz and Andrzej Benedykt Klęgiewicz, who died in 1841.Of particular artistic interest are two paintings by Czechowicz, located in two other chapels. The first, in the chapel of St Ignatius Lojola, depicts the kneeling saint, listening in pious meditation to the words of Christ, bearing the cross of his passion.

The second, in the Crucifixion Chapel, depicts Christ on the cross, of strangely beautiful workmanship, with Mary Mother of God and Mary Magdalene at his feet, as the embodiment of two sorrows. The Vollovich Chapel still stands intact in its entirety, as it was erected by Eustace Vollovich, under the invocation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is a tombstone of the bishop on the right on the wall, together with a marble plaque, inscribed: "Violator hujus operis infelix est". They say that Gucevičius, having read this inscription, did not want to restore this chapel, despite Bishop Massalski's insistence.

Folk tales, which readily and readily seek supernatural influences, attribute the bishop's sad end to God's orchestration in the tales that have reached our times, punishing him for violating the chapel's inviolability. In addition to St Casimir the Prince, who died in 1480, and the heart of Ladislaus IV, the following were buried in the cathedral church: 1) Prince Korygailo Olgierdovich, killed in 1390. 2) Alexander Vigund, Jagiello's favourite brother. 3) Duchess Anna, Vytautas' second wife, died in 1418. 4) Grand Duke Vytautas, died in 1430. 5) Duke Sigismund Kiejstutowicz, Vytautas' brother, killed in Trakai in 1440. 6) Duke Svidrigillo, buried in Vilnius in 1452. 7) Duke Michael, grandson of Kiejstutowicz and son of Sigismund, died 1452. 8) Polish King and Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander, died 1506. 9) Queen Elisabeth, first wife of Sigismund Augustus, died 1543 10) Queen Barbara Radziwillowna, died 1551.

At present, the Vilnius Archaeological Society has announced a contribution for the erection of a monument to the famous Barbara, and commissioned Mr Henryk Dmochowski to create it. In the treasury of Vilnius Cathedral there are many interesting monuments of the past, both in terms of their wealth and in terms of the historical memorabilia attached to them.