Russian Orthodox Cathedral - Vilnius, Lithuania

[Manfred M]

Another rainy day in Vilnius meant that we needed to find something to do that got us out of the rain every so often. With some 30 or so churches in the Old Town, this seemed like an obvious thing to do.

The Orthodox Cathedral here is the first Russian Orthodox Church that allowed interior photography. The light wasn't the greatest, but this shot gives a good indication of part of what we saw.

[LePetomane]

That is a beautiful shot. The last time I visited St. Petersburg the only one open to the public was St. Issac's Cathedral and photography was not allowed.

[Cogito]

Wow! Beautiful! Did you by any chance take a panorama?

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Manfred M]

Wow! Beautiful! Did you by any chance take a panorama?

Unfortunately, no. As with most churches, there were enough other people milling around and I wanted to keep them out of the image. This is where UWA lenses and focal lengths come into play; shot at 14mm focal length on a FF camera. This image is uncropped.

[billtils]

Unfortunately, no. As with most churches, there were enough other people milling around and I wanted to keep them out of the image. This is where UWA lenses and focal lengths come into play; shot at 14mm focal length on a FF camera. This image is uncropped.

+1 to all that Manfred. Add the lighting and it's a cracker of a shot.

[mugge]

Manfred, a beautiful shot. The white pillars in the background are quite essential to the composition to my mind.
Cheers Ole

[DanK]

A beautiful shot, and very well composed

[LePetomane]

It is interesting that some of the crosses are of the Byzantine style (upper crossbar) and others are of the traditional style.

[Manfred M]

It is interesting that some of the crosses are of the Byzantine style (upper crossbar) and others are of the traditional style.

I suspect that part of the story here is that all religious institutions were banned under Soviet rule and were "re-purposed" during the Soviet period. Many of the original fixtures, especially overtly religious ones were often removed and destroyed. After Lituanian independence in the early 1990s, many of the churches were returned to the original owners and had to be restored and reconsecrated. Of the 30 or so churches in the old town in Vilnius, six have still not been reopened.

The one thing that we did notice is that the restorations in a number of the churches as that is still an ongoing process and some of the interior decorations seemed to be a rather basic and even from a different time period than we would have expected. I suspect that this might be part of what we are seeing here; hasty work to get the churches back into working order and some of the decorating choices may have been rushed due to what could be sourced. There was definitely some anti-Russian sentiment in this predominantly (at least in theory) primarily Roman Catholic country, so I wonder if this might play a part too.

[LePetomane]

Manfred, thanks for the explanation. I'm surprised that a lot of these churches survived the Soviets. Growing up I attended a small Romanian Orthodox church that would lend the building out for services by other denominations. Beautiful church.

I hope you get to see more of these treasures on your trip.