- Place
- Klaipėda City Municipality
- Region
- Klaipėda
- Type
- contemporary Franciscan monastery church and cultural venue
- Address
- Savanorių g. 4, 92291 Klaipėda
- Coordinates
- 55.76000, 21.12500
- Visit duration
- 45-90 minutes; longer for a concert, exhibition, or event
- Best time
- daylight for the mosaic or during a public organ concert
St Francis of Assisi Monastery Chapel, City of Hope Church
Why this church is worth seeing
St Francis of Assisi Church stands out not for age but for an unusually coherent contemporary idea. A freestanding open bell tower accompanies the compact gabled church; a pale figurative mosaic fills the main gable, while rose gardens, a sensory garden, and community spaces are being developed around it.
Official sources use both church and St Francis of Assisi Monastery Chapel for the building. Both names refer to the same sanctuary at Savanorių g. 4, served by Franciscan friars of the Lithuanian Province of St Casimir of the Order of Friars Minor.
From cancer support to the 2012 chapel
The place began with support for people affected by cancer. The Order of Friars Minor records that Lithuania's first cancer patient support and information centre was initiated here in 2005. Klaipėda municipality provided the Franciscans with a 2.3 ha site at Labrenciškės beside the university hospital.
Klaipėda's first Run of Hope, a solidarity event for people living with cancer, took place on May 11, 2008. The cornerstone of the St Francis Oncology Centre and future chapel was blessed on November 17, 2009, and the present chapel was solemnly consecrated on July 22, 2012.
The architecture is associated with Italian architect Nunzio Rimmaudo and Lithuanian architect Saulius Plungė. Its prototype was the small Porziuncola chapel near Assisi, a place central to the life of St Francis and Franciscan tradition; in Klaipėda, that archetype is reinterpreted through contemporary forms and materials.
An almost 100 sq m Ravenna-school mosaic
The exterior's defining feature is the almost 100 sq m gable mosaic titled The Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of All Saints and the Sick. It was unveiled and blessed on November 20, 2022, so older photographs of the church may show the façade before its present appearance.
Artist Angelina Banytė developed the iconographic design from an idea by Brother Benediktas. More than one hundred craftsmen of the Byzantine Ravenna school made and assembled the mosaic in Italy, while a team led by Arvydas Bumblys completed its installation in Lithuania. Mosaic was chosen over wall fresco because it withstands the local climate.
Step back to the edge of the forecourt to read the whole triangular composition together with its muted red structural frame and the tall open tower beside it, where three bells hang one above another.
The Rieger organ and Gallery 1252
Inside, the principal musical object is an organ by the Austrian firm Rieger. City of Hope gives 37 stops, three manuals and pedal, and 2,528 pipes. The instrument and the room's acoustics support free organ recitals and other concerts, making the church one of Klaipėda's cultural performance spaces.
The monastery's Gallery 1252 takes its name from the year Klaipėda was founded. Its core collection came from the Lithuanian Franciscan Cultural Hearth in New York and includes diaspora art, porcelain, engravings, Asian works, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sculpture, ritual masks, and objects from several cultural traditions. Temporary exhibitions, lectures, and literary events supplement the permanent display.
The grounds also include a sensory garden named for Jurgis Ambraziejus Pabrėža, along with cherry trees, roses, and lavender. The Franciscan mission is expressed here through art, music, gardens, and a humane environment as much as through religious practice.
Services, visits, and respect for an active church
The Diocese of Telšiai and City of Hope currently list Sunday Mass at 11 am and 1 pm and weekday Mass from Tuesday to Friday at 6 pm; Saturday is by arrangement and there is no Monday service. Holiday and event schedules vary, so check the official website before travelling.
Church admission is free, but this is an active place of worship. During Mass, avoid walking around or photographing people without consent. Gallery 1252, concerts, tours, and monastery events operate to separate programmes and should be checked or arranged in advance.
Allow about 45 minutes for an architectural visit or up to 90 minutes with the organ, gallery, or gardens. Daylight reveals the mosaic's pale colours and dense figurative detail most clearly.
