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Cathedral School of Vilnius

Catholic schools in LithuaniaDefunct Jesuit schoolsDefunct schools in VilniusEducational institutions established in the 14th centuryEuropean school stubs
Lithuanian building and structure stubsLithuanian history stubs
Gothic Vilnius Cathedral
Gothic Vilnius Cathedral

The Cathedral School of Vilnius was a cathedral school attached to the Vilnius Cathedral. It is believed to be the earliest school in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For about a hundred years it was the only Catholic school in Vilnius (possibly due to a royal privilege prohibiting establishment of other schools). The cathedral school was merged with Vilnius Academy (now Vilnius University), established by the Jesuits in 1570. The exact date of its establishment is unknown, but it must be sometime between the Christianization of Lithuania in 1386 and school's first mention in written sources on 9 May 1397. It was initially a primary school, evolving into a secondary school by the first half of the 15th century. Most likely the school taught trivium and quadrivium and catered to church needs educating lower clergy. Its first pupils were indigenous Christians that also knew the Lithuanian language. In 1522, Bishop John expanded the school to three classes and introduced courses in rhetoric, dialectics, classical literature, arithmetic, music. The students studied Distichs of Cato and Ars grammatica by Aelius Donatus. In 1539, the school had twelve boys who sang in a church choir and twenty boys who served as altar boys. During its existence, the school prepared over 100 students who later pursued academic careers at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cathedral School of Vilnius (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Cathedral School of Vilnius
Cathedral Square, Vilnius Old Town

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N 54.686111111111 ° E 25.288055555556 °
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Vilniaus Šv. Stanislovo ir Šv. Vladislovo arkikatedra bazilika (Vilniaus katedra)

Cathedral Square 2
01143 Vilnius, Old Town
Vilnius County, Lithuania
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Gothic Vilnius Cathedral
Gothic Vilnius Cathedral
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Vilnius Cathedral
Vilnius Cathedral

The Cathedral Basilica of St Stanislaus and St Ladislaus of Vilnius (also known as Vilnius Cathedral; Lithuanian: Vilniaus Šv. Stanislovo ir Šv. Vladislovo arkikatedra bazilika; Polish: Bazylika archikatedralna św. Stanisława Biskupa i św. Władysława, historical: Kościół Katedralny św. Stanisława) is the main Catholic cathedral in Lithuania. It is situated in Vilnius Old Town, just off Cathedral Square. Dedicated to the Christian saints Stanislaus and Ladislaus, the church is the heart of Catholic spiritual life in Lithuania. The coronations of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania took place within its confines. Inside its crypts and catacombs are buried many famous people from Lithuanian and Polish history including Vytautas (1430), his wife Anna (1418), his brother Sigismund (Žygimantas) (1440), his cousin Švitrigaila (1452), Saint Casimir (1484), Alexander Jagiellon (1506), and two wives of Sigismund II Augustus: Elisabeth of Austria (1545) and Barbara Radziwiłł (1551). The heart of the Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Władysław IV Vasa was buried there upon his death, although the rest of his body is buried at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Inside, there are more than forty works of art dating from the 16th through 19th centuries, including frescoes and paintings of various sizes. During the restoration of the cathedral, the altars of a presumed pagan temple and the original floor, laid during the reign of King Mindaugas, were uncovered. In addition, the remains of the cathedral built in 1387 were also located. A fresco dating from the end of the 14th century, the oldest known fresco in Lithuania, was found on the wall of one of the cathedral's underground chapels. During the Soviet occupation, the cathedral was converted into a warehouse. Masses were celebrated again starting in 1988, although the cathedral was still officially called The Gallery of Images at that time. In 1989, its status as a cathedral was restored.