The Bernardine monastery and church complex at Tytuvėnai, which dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, together with the cloisters added in the following century , are among the most interesting architectural gems in the former Duchy of Samogitia, part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The founder of the pious foundation is known, as well as - rarely - its builder, Tomas Kacper of Krakow.

The Bernardine monks were brought to Tytuvėnai by Andrey Vollovic , an ensign of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and a Samogitian starosta, who in 1614 donated land to the monks and founded a brick church and monastery. Vollovich died the same year and was buried in the crypts of the temple under construction. He did, however, make a will in time to allocate additional funds for further expansion and obliged his brother Jaroš (d. 1643), Lithuanian sub-chancellor, to complete the work . In 1619, the Bernardine guardian Bernard Szwab signed a contract with the master builder Tomasz Kacper of Krakow to build the church for a fee of 8,000 zloty. The church was consecrated in 1635.

Between 1733 and 1735 the walls of the temple and monastery were covered with Baroque polychrome. In 1759-1771, the facade towers were raised by one storey and a porch was added. Major changes took place between 1771 and 1775, when a cemetery square was created in front of the church, surrounded by cloisters with corner towers, where the Stations of the Cross were organised and the Holy Steps Chapel was built in the middle . In the steps leading up to the altar of the Crucifixion , lumps of earth from Jerusalem were placed there , brought by Father Antoni Burnicki , who had been on mission in the Holy Land for some time. In this way, the old tradition of the Franciscan family's care of the Passion sites and their popularisation of Passion devotion in the Republic was recalled.

The farm buildings around the monastery and church have also been preserved. The Bernardine monks of Tytuvėnai were liquidated by the Tsarist authorities after the January Uprising, in 1864.

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Tytuvėnai is an oriented, three-nave, four-bay basilica with a semicircular, four-bay presbytery. The single, doubled Tuscan pilasters in the nave support the barrel vaults with lunettes and grottoes. They are decorated with a pattern of stars drawn in plaster ribs. In the chancel, the vaults are supported by brackets. The stellar vaults, with their original split ribbed ends, were established in the spacious sacristy. The walls of the presbytery are additionally reinforced from the outside with shallow arcades, while the walls of the side aisles are supported by small buttresses. The windows of the sanctuary are pointed arched with a simplified masquerade.

It is noteworthy that contrary to the rules of the Bernardine Order, Tytuvėnai decided to build two towers on its façade , which testifies not so much to the wealth of the foundation as to its importance in the religious landscape of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. According to the monastery chroniclers, the choice of site for the monastery was accompanied by supernatural circumstances, and an image of the Virgin Mary was placed in the church, which in time was considered miraculous . The image was a gift from Vilnius Bishop Eustachy Vollovich (1572-1630), brother of Andrew and Jarosz. It depicts Mary in the type ' Salus Populi Romani' (Saving of the Roman people) from the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. This was a very popular image during the Counter-Reformation period , and copies of the 'Salus Populi Romani' image were sent from Rome to the remotest corners of the Christian world. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the cult of the Virgin Mary of the Snow was strongest in the first half of the 17th century. It was connected with the Counter-Reformation and the Turkish threat, which, according to the idea of the "antemurale christianitatis" (Christian bulwark), was concretised during the victorious defence of Chocim in 1621. Its promotion was also linked to a debate with Protestants, who questioned the cult of Mary and the worship of miraculous images.

A three-winged, two-storey monastery with a cloister was built against the southern wall of the church. In the refectory - the most impressive room - the barrel vaults with lunettes, decorated with a grid of ribs, have been preserved. In addition, portals with early Baroque frames are still visible in some rooms. Outside, the windows are decorated with stone walls and the wing with the monastery gate is topped with a stepped gable.

The architecture of the Tytuvėnai church and monastery is only seemingly archaic. Its creator, Tomasz Kacper of Krakow, relied on models and treatises from the Netherlands and Germany. He was therefore familiar with works that combined medieval traditions with ancient proposals from across the Alps. It is also worth noting that, in the case of the Wołłowicz foundation , its Counter-Reformation character was evident from the very beginning. The Bernardine monasteries acted as mission centres for the semi-pagan and Protestant population, which was essentially dominant in Samogitia at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Thus, one can cautiously put forward the thesis, following the Tytuvėnai researcher Aleksandr Stankiewicz, that the architecture of the centre was to be associated as little as possible with the 'papal' style - Roman or early Baroque style . It was decided to refer to architecture perceived as modern in the Danzig and Königsberg versions, with Italianising Dutch and German forms.

A few words should be dedicated to Tomasz Kacper vel Kacperowicz from Krakow , who led the construction not only in Tytuvėnai. He also built the Bernardine church and monastery in Kretinga (1603-1619) . He was also active in Vilnius (before 1636 - late 1640s) , where he and his wife lived on Yapowa Street (Švarco g.), working, among other things, on the Chodkevich palace located on Great Street .

In the interior of the church, high-quality wood-carved, white-painted and gilded altars, a pulpit, a baptistery and an organ made in the second half of the 18th century in the so-called Vilnius Baroque style have been preserved . Their founders were the local nobility, hence some of the furnishings are decorated with coats of arms. Paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, including portraits of the Volkhov family, hang on the walls of the altars. Particularly valuable are the tombstones , above all the marble monument to Andrew Vollovich from around 1640 in the form of a reclining knight, or the epitaph plates of Krzysztof and Andrew Kotovskis, killed in the battles of Lojów (1651) and Chocim (1673), respectively. Also worth mentioning are the Classicist plaques of Michał Steckiewicz (died 1795) and Jan Burba (died 1825), founded by his father Antoni.

In the middle of the cemetery's cloisters , with its painted and carved Stations of the Cross , stands an extremely interesting building - the chapel that houses the Holy Steps . After crossing the threshold, the faithful find themselves at the foot of the "Scala Sancta" (Holy Staircase), which leads to the altar of the Crucifixion located on the first floor. It is a symbolic representation of the staircase that the tormented Christ had to climb when entering Pilate's palace. The building is a copy of the relics of the Holy Steps, which are located in Rome, at the Basilica of St John Lateran. The twenty-eight-foot white marble staircase was, according to accounts and legends, transported from Jerusalem in the same way as the relics of the Holy Cross or other holy things associated with the Passion of Christ by St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great.