Lithuania

The only surviving city gate of Vilnius, first mentioned in 1514, topped by a Discalced Carmelite chapel built in 1671 that enshrines an early 17th-century icon of the Virgin Mary painted on oak boards. In 1927 the image was canonically crowned by Pope Pius XI with the title Mother of Mercy, and its Feast of Protection is celebrated around November 16. In April 1935, the image of Divine Mercy was publicly venerated by the faithful for the first time right at the Gate of Dawn.

UNESCO World Heritage Site (Vilnius Historic Centre, 1994)Aušros Vartų g. 14, Vilnius (lối lên nhà nguyện từ nhà thờ Thánh Têrêsa)

Photo: Kontis Šatūnas, Phạm vi công cộng, Wikimedia Commons

The oldest Orthodox cathedral in the Baltic states situated on the bank of the Vilnia River in Vilnius Old Town, founded in 1346 by Grand Duke Algirdas and rebuilt in the early sixteenth century by Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, renowned for its distinctive synthesis of Late Gothic brickwork with a nineteenth-century Georgian-inspired conical dome by Nikolai Chagin, its five-tiered gilded iconostasis, and the royal tomb of Grand Duchess Helena of Moscow.

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania, National Cultural Monument of the Republic of Lithuania, and core monument of the Vilnius Historic Centre UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed in 1994, Ref. 541)Maironio g. 14, LT-01124 Vilnius, Vilnius County, Republic of Lithuania

Photo: BigHead, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The sole surviving and active synagogue among more than one hundred historic houses of worship in Vilnius (long celebrated as the Jerusalem of Lithuania), designed in 1902 by architect David Rosenhaus under the Hebrew name Taharat Ha-Kodesh and inaugurated in September 1903 in a Moorish and Romanesque Revival style featuring horseshoe arches, a domed Torah Ark, an upper cantorial choir gallery, and the Tablets of the Decalogue crowning the main facade.

Main Active Synagogue of the Vilnius Jewish Religious Community (Litvak heritage), National Cultural Monument of the Republic of Lithuania, and historic monument within the Vilnius Historic Centre UNESCO World Heritage Site (1994)Pylimo g. 39, LT-01309 Vilnius, Vilnius County, Republic of Lithuania

Photo: FaceMePLS from The Hague, The Netherlands, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

A world-renowned Catholic pilgrimage sanctuary situated twelve kilometers north of Siauliai atop the medieval Jurgaiciai hillfort beside the Kulpe River, where more than 200,000 oak and wrought-iron crosses have been planted by faithful pilgrims since the uprisings of 1831 and 1863 despite repeated twentieth-century bulldozings, standing as a universal monument of peaceful spiritual endurance visited by Pope John Paul II in 1993 and linked to UNESCO-listed Lithuanian cross-crafting.

National Pilgrimage Sanctuary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Siauliai, National Historical and Cultural Monument of the Republic of Lithuania, and primary living site of the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Cross-crafting and its symbolism, Kryzdirbyste, proclaimed 2001 and inscribed 2008)Jurgaiciai Village, Meskuiciai Eldership, Siauliai District Municipality, LT-81439 Siauliai County, Republic of Lithuania

Photo: Mannobult, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The metropolitan cathedral basilica and spiritual heart of Catholic Lithuania standing in Cathedral Square at the foot of Gediminas Hill in Vilnius, founded in 1387 at the Christianization of Lithuania and rebuilt between 1783 and 1801 in monumental Neoclassical style by architect Laurynas Gucevicius, famed for its Early Baroque Chapel of Saint Casimir, its freestanding 57-meter bell tower, and the royal crypts housing the tomb of Vytautas the Great and Lithuania's oldest fourteenth-century fresco.

Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vilnius, Papal Minor Basilica (proclaimed by Pope Pius XI in 1922), National Sanctuary of the Republic of Lithuania, and flagship monument of the Vilnius Historic Centre UNESCO World Heritage Site (1994, Ref. 541)Katedros a. 2, LT-01143 Vilnius, Vilnius County, Republic of Lithuania

Photo: John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons