The 16th-century gate leading from Vilnius to the suburb called the Gates of Dawn and further along the road towards Hrodna was originally called Trakai, Medininkai or Gates of Dawn. The originally Gothic tower was raised several decades later by an attic with Mannerist heraldic decoration depicting a Pahonia.

In the 17th century, two two-metre-high representations of Mary as Mother of the Saviour and Jesus the Saviour of the World, painted on oak boards, were hung in the niches of the gate. Over time, the Saviour's image (now kept in the Dailes Museum in Vilnius) was moved to another location and the relationship between the two images was lost. The Ostra Brama paintings were probably created between 1620 and 1630, and their prototype was a work by the 16th century Dutch artist Martin de Vos.

The Carmelites, installed in 1626 in the neighbouring Church of St Teresa of Avila, developed a cult of the Gateway image of Mary over a period of half a century, leading to the construction of a wooden chapel adjacent to the fortified brick building. After the latter burned down in 1711, a brick chapel was erected, which still exists today. At the end of the 18th century, a classicist gallery with stairs leading up to the chapel was built, and its stucco decoration and false marble altar were made. The chapel's façade was also rebuilt in this style in 1828-1829, with the inscription Mother of Mercy, Under Thy Protection We Flee.

Over time, when the Ostra Brama (Gates of Dawn) ceased to have a defensive function and traffic was restricted, the street leading towards it became a shrine under the open sky. It serves both passers-by for daily prayer and is a gathering place for crowds of pilgrims where, as an anonymous poet put it:

Charm from Thy Image
Casts God's radiance on people
Every passer-by immediately
Into the dust he bows.

The great national importance of the cult of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate is evidenced by numerous poetic and musical works (e.g. Litanies of the Dawn Gate Church by S. Moniuszko), and above all by the countless number of copies of the painting venerated in shrines gathering all the heirs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Poles, Lithuanians, Byelorussians Catholics, Uniates and Orthodox.

Time of construction of the city gate ca. 1503-1514
The brick chapel was built around 1712