Vilnius Cathedral is one of the city’s icons and its calling card. Is the building’s visibly distressed façade sending a bad message about the Lithuanian capital? The country’s most important Catholic church, Vilnius Cathedral acquired its present look – a classicist Greek temple-like edifice – in the late 18th century under the design of the architect Laurynas Stuoka-Gucevičius. Its white façade last underwent a touch-up in 2018 but since then plastering has started crumbling again.
Violeta from Vilnius believes it ruins the image of the entire city. “Monday morning, at 7 o’clock, a group of German tourists, as I understand from the language, are already standing in front of the Cathedral. The guide is pointing to it, one of the main tourist attractions in Vilnius.
But the columns of the cathedral are crumbling in places, they look as if they have been broken off. Further on, you can see that the finish on the walls has started to crumble too. Yes, the inside of the cathedral is very beautiful, but the outside should also look immaculate, and now it is starting to look unkempt,” the woman tells LRT.
lt. Perhaps it’s time to think of another renovation, she adds. It’s all about finances Mykolas Juozapavičius, the economist of the Vilnius Archdiocese, tells LRT.
lt that upkeeping Vilnius Cathedral requires a lot of funds, which is why it is being retouched slowly, according to the available resources. “It takes millions of euros to do it all. We don.
