001 Ensemble of St Michael the Archangel Church and Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Convent
St Michael the Archangel Church and the former Bernardine Franciscan Sisters Convent form an impressive Renaissance-era ensemble. Its construction and decoration was supported by Leonas Sapiega, one of the most prominent noblemen in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th-17th centuries. The convent housed strictly cloistered Bernardine Sisters. The Church served not only as a house of prayer, but also as a mausoleum for the Sapiega family. In the Soviet era, the monastery and the church were closed. The buildings were left unused and abandoned for a time and the church 18th-century altarpieces and the pulpit were demolished. Renovated after a fire in 1964, the church was opened as a museum of architecture, while the monastery premises were adapted to serve as a student dormitory, apartments and industrial workshops. The church and the dilapidated monastery building were returned to Vilnius Archdiocese in 1993. In 2009, the restoration of the ensemble was completed and the Church Heritage Museum was opened to visitors.
