Past exhibitions

The exhibition was dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Barbara Radziwiłł‘s birth. The title originates from the queen’s letter correspondence and is a nod to the signature form that she frequently used – “Barbara, etc.”. This was an unusually modest and simple way to sign the documents for someone who was the Queen of Poland and the Grand Duchess of Lithuania. Therefore, the exhibition encouraged visitors to reacquaint themselves with one of the most popular women of Lithuanian history in a completely new light, not only through the lens of a love story between her and king Sigismund Augustus. The exhibition covered various aspects of the noblewoman’s life – from health and diet to wardrobe, literacy, and geography – and invited the visitor to discover them by engaging all of the senses.

The old baptismal font of Žemaičių Kalvarija from the middle of the 18th century is famous both for its beauty and history. The impressive vessel is carved from linden and oak, and is decorated with carvings, metal details and polychromy. It is gilded and silvered. Very few wooden Baroque baptismal fonts have survived in Lithuania. The present font is a unique utensil of this kind of such an intricate composition and iconography.

The exhibition presents the historical goldsmithery of Vilnius, collected in the sacristies of churches, which, like everything else in Lithuania, has been severely affected and irreversibly scattered by numerous historical cataclysms, occupations, wars and the economic recessions that accompanied them.

The exhibition presents the liturgical books of the Mass of the traditional Christian denominations of Lithuania. For the first time, the Museum of Church Heritage is exhibiting together the printed and manuscript books of Eastern Rite Christians (Orthodox, Old Believers, Unitarians) and Western Rite Christians (Roman Catholics, Evangelical Lutherans, Evangelical Reformed).

Pictures representing the Way of the Cross from the Seda church are a rare surviving example of rural painting, which attract the viewers by their sincerity, original compositions and a great many curious details. The author of the paintings is unknown, but it is presumed that it might have been Kazys Varnelis (1871–1945), the father of the remarkable American Lithuanian artist Kazys Varnelis (1917–2010). According to another oral tradition, the Way of the Cross was created by a woman who lived in Seda.

The exhibition presents the findings of archaeological excavations carried out in the territory of the Bernardine Monastery in 1993-2008. The exhibition includes authentic household and liturgical objects and fragments used by the monks, as well as other finds. The exhibits reveal the life and routine of the Bernardines, allow us to imagine their daily routine and celebrations, and recall the festive and tragic events that surrounded St Michael the Archangel's Church, the monastery and its inhabitants.

Part of the collection of the Vilnius Archdiocese was presented for the public at the inaugural exhibition of the Church Heritage Museum opened at the National Museum of Lithuania (New Arsenal, Arsenalo St. 1, Vilnius) on March 9. The bulk of the collection consists of liturgical implements and art works, which for certain reasons are no longer used in liturgy but are important in the historical and aesthetic respect. The exhibition was renewed on 22 May 2007.