VYTAUTAS HILL

Everyone who wants to observe Kražiai should climb 50 steps made of stone to the top of Vytautas Hill. Here, the Grand Duke Vytautas ordered to build one of the first Christian temples in Samogitia. In 1416, St. Mykolas Church was built. In 1475 the church was rebuilt after the first church burned down. In 1478 the altaria was commissioned. In the 16th century, Kražiai Church together with its altaria was one of the richest in the whole Samogitia. By that time the church contained 7 altars and a chapel. At the beginning of the 17th century this church was reconstructed and in 1638 it burned down and was rebuilt between 1646 and 1648. By that time the church’s wooden cruciform plan church was noted, as were its’ altars, it’s Chapel of the Fraternity of St Rosary and a number of liturgical treasures and clothes. In 1709, the church burned down once more. The parish was then converted into a Jesuit temple. The parochial church was rebuilt only in around 1745, and in 1807, during the fire of the town, it burned down once again. In 1904 the project for a new stone church was ready, but the process of construction did not begin. During the fire in 1941 June 25 the wooden church again burned down and was no more restored.