Šilalė church of ST Francis of Assisi

Šilalė Church of St Francis of Assisi is located at M. Valančiaus g. 2. It was built in 1909 on an excellent location – the front façade is facing the historical centre of the city.
The neo-Gothic church was designed by the Polish architect Józef Pius Dziekoński. The front façade features a high belfry (about 60 m) and small turrets in the corners. That is a three-nave church with valuable wooden altars in each nave and niches in the side naves. One of them features a rare cross composition with the hands of Christ raised up, and the other – the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lourdes. The church is also decorated with two dozes of valuable 18th-19th c. wooden statues and stained glass windows, depicting the lives of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary and saints. The stained glass windows were included into the list of art monuments. The Romantic organ of the church was built in 1912 by the famous master Bruno Goebel from Königsberg. The church has been consecrated by the Samogitian Bishop Pranciškus Karevičius in 1919.
The cost for the construction and equipment of the church was huge – about 100 000 Tsarist roubles. Some of the costs were covered by local landowners, but the larger share of the funds was donated by the parishioners.
Šilalė hosts three largest traditional feasts: the feast of St Francis of Assisi (4 October), St Anne (26 July) and Porziuncola Feast (2 August).
At the entrance of the church there is a memorial plate with a bas-relief in memory of Laurynas Rokas Ivinskis (1810-1881), who was born in one of the settlements of Šilalė Parish and baptised at the old church of the town.

Compiled in 2018