The Church of St. Catherine stands in the Old Town of Vilnius, which UNESCO listed in 1994. Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, began it in 1618 as a church for Benedictine nuns. It was consecrated in 1632, burned in the 1660s during the war with Russia, and was rebuilt from 1670 to 1694.
The Great Fire of 1737 destroyed much of it. Johann Christoph Glaubitz led the reconstruction from 1741 to 1753, and the interior was decorated in 1752 and 1753. The style is Baroque, with Rococo ornament on the facade, towers and pediments. The church has a single nave, nine late Baroque altars with Rococo sculpture, and towers raised to five storeys. A dragon drainpipe decorates the facade.
The nuns were deported in 1945, and the church returned to the Vilnius Archdiocese in 2002. It was restored after independence and adapted for cultural use.
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