Birštonas Municipality
Dzūkija
sacred art and memorial museum
Birutės g. 10, Birštonas
54.60210, 24.03410
45-60 minutes
year-round, indoors
Birštonas Sacred Art Museum, Sacral Museum
The old rectory beside the church
Birštonas Sacral Museum is housed in the old wooden rectory beside St Anthony of Padua Church in the centre of resort Birštonas. It is small but dense: ten rooms bring together sacred art and memorial rooms for two church figures, Blessed Teofilius Matulionis and Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius.
The museum is a branch of Birštonas Museum, so it is easy to visit together with the main local-history museum in town. Do not confuse the addresses: the sacral museum is at Birutės g. 10, while the main Birštonas Museum is in another building.
A rectory that became a museum
The building is a wooden rectory from around 1880, a one-storey log house with verandas, bargeboards, and carved details typical of Lithuanian ethnographic wooden architecture. In 1999 the neglected rectory was restored according to surviving early twentieth-century photographs, recreating verandas and wooden decoration.
The museum opened to visitors on December 26, 2000, during the Jubilee Year of Christianity. It is considered one of the first sacral museums of this type in Lithuania after the restoration of independence.
The secret bishop consecration in 1957
The rectory's most important historical moment is a secret bishop consecration. From 1956 to 1958, Kaišiadorys Bishop Teofilius Matulionis lived here after returning from Soviet prison and exile. On December 25, 1957, Christmas Day, he secretly consecrated priest Vincentas Sladkevičius as bishop in this rectory, appointing him his auxiliary.
This was important not only for the Kaišiadorys Diocese but for the whole underground Church in the Soviet period. The distinction matters: Sladkevičius was consecrated bishop here, not imprisoned here. His later places of exile were Nemunėlio Radviliškis and Pabiržė. He later became Archbishop of Kaunas and a cardinal.
What you can see
The museum collections include eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sacred art: paintings, sculpture, liturgical garments and vessels, and folk religious carvings. Among them are works by academic artist Nikodemas Silvanavičius and the oldest exhibit, a 1619 communion chalice from Musninkai Church.
Two rooms are dedicated to Blessed Teofilius Matulionis, showing his liturgical items, a rosary used in prison, and personal objects. Several rooms present Cardinal Vincentas Sladkevičius with his typewriter, travel suitcase, clothing, books from his personal library, and an original 1997 letter from Pope John Paul II.
Visiting
During research, the museum was open Tuesday to Sunday and closed Monday; a ticket cost about 2 EUR, while a combined ticket with Birštonas Museum cost 3 EUR. Opening hours and prices can change, so check the official museum page.
Allow about 45-60 minutes. Combine the visit with the adjacent St Anthony of Padua Church, Birštonas Observation Tower, and a walk through the resort by the Nemunas Loops.
