Old Žagarė Church of St Peter and St Paul: a modest dolomite-built sanctuary where the origins of Žagarė, a disputed construction history, and the memory of the Servant of God Barbora meet

The exact name keeps Žagarė's two churches of St Peter and St Paul apart

The Register of Cultural Property calls the building Senosios Žagarės Šv. Petro ir Pauliaus bažnyčia, or Old Žagarė Church of St Peter and St Paul. The Diocese of Šiauliai lists it as Žagarė II Parish of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul. VLE and older Lithuanian texts may use Petro ir Povilo instead: Povilas is an older Lithuanian form of the same apostle Paul's name, not evidence of a third church or a different dedication.

Old Žagarė developed on the left bank of the Švėtė, while New Žagarė lies on the right. Both parts of town have active Catholic churches with the same dedication. This modest hilltop sanctuary belongs to Žagarė II; Žagarė I Church stands across the river. On maps, the words Old Žagarė or the parish number are more reliable identifiers than the saints' names alone.

The parish publishes 1 Švėtės Street as the visitor address, while the newer KVR complex record gives 4A Švėtės Street. Both refer to the same church property through different administrative address points. Coordinates 56.361441, 23.252287 come from the official KVR geometry and mark the protected site, not a confirmed parking bay, visitor entrance, or step-free route.

From the document of 1499 to the consecration of 1745, the building history has two scholarly versions

A wooden church in Old Žagarė first appears in documents in 1499, when it received an indulgence privilege; KVR more broadly places its beginning in the final decade of the 15th century. Marijona Syrevičienė endowed the church with land and income in 1523. Later sources mention fires in 1605, the mid-17th century, and 1712, but the scale of every fire and the structure erected after each one are not equally clear.

The central dispute concerns the age of the masonry church. Architectural researcher Ilona Bilytė dated its main masonry volume to the first half of the 17th century and distinguished later additions. Other scholars cited by KVR conclude that every church standing here before 1712 was timber and that the surviving masonry building rose only after the last fire. The Register consequently uses the deliberately broad and questioned range 1712-1745, which is more responsible than presenting one construction year as settled fact.

The patron is also uncertain. Research considers Kazimieras Umiastauskas, who held Žagarė until about 1714, or the Kościuszko family, who possessed the estate in 1744-1775; KVR does not identify one uncontested builder. Bishop Antanas Domininkas Tiškevičius consecrated the church in 1745 under the dual dedication of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles St Peter and St Paul. The second half of that dedication became the familiar modern title.

During roof alterations in 1821, the sacristy was brought beneath the main roof, an earlier central turret was removed, and the present type of small square bell turret was placed over the west facade. An enclosed west porch was added in the first half of the 19th century around supports left from an earlier open portico. Two later proposals for a large tower, prepared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were never built. The church is therefore correctly described as towerless in its massing even though a small roof turret is visible.

Local dolomite, a pseudo-basilican interior, and centuries of burials form one rare ensemble

The church has an irregular Latin-cross plan and three-aisled pseudo-basilican section: the central nave is higher than the sides but has no separate clerestory rising above them. A three-sided apse closes the east end, unequal sacristy and store additions flank the presbytery, and a vaulted crypt lies below it. The asymmetry records a long sequence of building campaigns rather than a design error.

Fieldstone foundations and plinth support walls of local dolomite and brick beneath rough pale render. Grey sheet metal covers the steep roof, a compact bell turret rises over the west facade, and a west porch clad in dark vertical boards stands out against the white masonry. Restrained openings, blind niches, and the modest scale continue a Renaissance architectural tradition, but the disputed date means that the building should not be reduced to a stylistically pure product of one period.

A rendered masonry wall and gates enclose the churchyard, with a small timber-shingle roof protecting the wall top. Mature lime and maple trees grow around the perimeter. A timber bell tower erected near the principal gate around 1805 disappeared after 1930, and a 19th-century charnel house with a sculpture of St John of Nepomuk has also been lost. The calm, open enclosure seen today is therefore only part of the former arrangement.

Burials continued in the churchyard until 1786, when the cemetery moved to Veidė Hill. Archaeologists working east of the church in 2009 found six graves from the 16th and 17th centuries together with masonry that may have belonged to an earlier church or crypt. A 2011 excavation beside Švėtės Street uncovered another 38 graves dated to the 16th century. The grass within and beside the wall is thus not simply parkland but a burial landscape several centuries deep.

The interior is not an untouched 18th-century ensemble: some elements survived and others were reconstructed after Soviet use

Profiled timber supports on granite bases divide the three aisles, a boarded timber barrel vault spans the central space, and a timber organ gallery occupies the west end. Images of St Peter and St Paul on the presbytery walls are thought to originate in the first half of the 18th century, while decorative and figurative nave-ceiling paintings date to 1906-1908. KVR associates them with Kazimieras Valčakevičius and possibly Pranciškus Marcinkus, but assessed parts of the ceiling scheme as being in poor condition in 2022.

Registered furnishings include 19th-century confessionals, an 1885 processional cross from the Norblin workshop, a retable dated around 1837, a double-sided processional altar made in 1909, and the St Casimir bell cast in Kaunas in 1944. These are highlights rather than a promise that every object will occupy a conspicuous position during a visit. The original organ has not survived, and some protected objects may be stored or visible only from a distance.

The Soviet authorities closed the church in 1963. It served first as a grain store and, from 1971, as storage for ethnographic collections of the Šiauliai Aušros Museum. Some liturgical objects moved to the New Žagarė church or elsewhere, while the remaining fixed interior was badly damaged. The present high altar, tabernacle, pulpit with a trumpeting angel, and presbytery rail are consequently not intact 18th-century originals: they were reconstructed from old photographs during the 1991-1994 restoration.

The restored church was blessed and reopened on 24 September 1994. VLE additionally records a consecration in 2003; the most coherent reading is that these dates mark distinct stages in the return, restoration, and later liturgical dedication rather than two building campaigns. Vytautas Švarlys created stained glass for the apse, a bell from Raktuvė Chapel was installed in the roof turret, and the facades underwent further repairs in 2015.

Barbora Žagarietė's crypt brings together documented devotion, disputed dates, and an enduring sacred story

Barbora Žagarietė is officially styled a Servant of God, not Blessed and not a canonized saint. VLE dates her life to 1628-1648 and associates her with the Umiastauskas family, but the Diocese of Šiauliai stresses how little documentary biography survives. Bishop Antanas Domininkas Tiškevičius wrote in 1755 that nobody then living knew the maiden's name or origin with certainty. Her conventional dates and surname therefore belong to an established identity that is not equally confirmed by every source.

Church tradition relates that a Swedish attack burned the church while Barbora's body remained untouched by the fire and was recovered from the ashes. This should be understood as a devotional account, not an event verified by modern historical or scientific methods. The cult itself is much more securely documented: Tiškevičius's 1755 report to the Holy See described eight cases from 1735-1748 attributed to Barbora's intercession. Even the transfer of the remains into the crypt has two chronologies, with the diocesan narrative giving 1711 and the KVR assessment favouring a stage around 1792.

The earliest case entered in the book of graces attributed to Barbora dates to 1853, while Bishop Motiejus Valančius's formal instruction to record such testimony is dated 7 January 1860. The book contained 97 entries by 14 December 1940, but the diocesan account explicitly notes that none had undergone canonical investigation. Dates for the Tsarist closure of the crypt also differ: church tradition gives 1878, while the KVR assessment gives 1886; both narratives have the crypt reopened in 1897.

When the church was closed in 1963, the remains kept in a glass coffin were removed to an unknown destination. Their present location has not been confirmed, and later searches produced no result. The restored crypt now contains a symbolic coffin and memorial objects, not a reliquary holding Barbora's body. The devotional register, long thought lost, was found by Jesuit priest Boleslovas Babrauskas in 1994. A diocesan cause for Barbora's beatification and canonization opened on 24 September 2005, but the opening of a cause does not mean that beatification has taken place.

Sunday Mass is a useful reference, but the crypt, accessibility, and parking require separate planning

On 20 July 2026, the Diocese of Šiauliai listed Mass at Žagarė II Church on Sundays at 10:00. It publishes no separate daily sightseeing hours, admission ticket, or permanent opening time for the crypt. The Mass schedule indicates when the church is in liturgical use, but it does not guarantee that the crypt will be accessible before or after worship. Feast-day arrangements, the 25 May commemoration of Barbora, and summer events can differ, so check the official diocesan page before travelling.

A priest based at Žagarė I serves the Žagarė II parish. For dependable access to the interior or crypt, the diocese publishes the serving parish's telephone, +370 676 05955, and email, zagaresbaznycia@gmail.com. The absence of a published admission fee usually means that there is no ticket desk, not that visitors may unlock or enter restricted spaces independently; group visits, interpretation, and special opening may require separate arrangements.

The church stands on a slope. No official source located for this research confirms a step-free route, accessible toilet, or reserved visitor car park, while inclines and steps occur at the gates, church entrances, and the descent into the crypt. Discuss mobility needs by phone, park only where street signs permit, and never block the churchyard gates. The KVR coordinates are a heritage-site point, not a parking location.

Treat the churchyard as a historic burial ground: avoid shortcuts across likely graves, do not climb the wall, and keep children away from the crypt stairs. Speak quietly inside, avoid walking around with a camera during Mass, and do not use flash. Ask the parish before close photography of the symbolic coffin, altars, worshippers, or rites.