Hidden for 200 years, vast Baroque murals rediscovered in Vilnius’ St. John’s Church

Hidden beneath layers of paint for more than 200 years, one of the largest surviving Baroque Christian painting programs in the Baltic region has emerged inside St. John’s Church at Vilnius University in Lithuania.

The church, formally named the Church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, has yielded a discovery that is both archaeological and religious.

It reveals an almost untouched vision of Catholic worship from the 18th century and offers new evidence that Lithuania was an important center of Europe’s shared Christian artistic tradition.

A fragment of an 18th-century mural depicting a woman holding a child, painted in cool tones, emerges from beneath later overpainting in St. John’s Church in Vilnius, Lithuania. | Credit: Ugnius Bagdonavičius/Vilnius University

Researchers have confirmed that more than 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet) of original Baroque murals remain preserved beneath later paint layers, making it one of the most authentic surviving Baroque church interiors in the Baltic region.

Baroque architecture was heavily promoted by the Catholic Church in the early 1600s to counter the austere architectural style…