Exhibitions

The exhibition playfully presents the pilgrims' routes and the curiosities associated with the journey, revealing the goals that invited the pilgrims to embark on their distant and dangerous route. On a large map, visitors can move mobile figures towards their chosen destination and see the extensive network of pilgrimage ways that has developed since early Christianity, as well as ring a bell to invite fellow pilgrims, smell the scent of real incense, get the seal of the place they are visiting, peer into the doors of the Jubilee Basilicas, see what pilgrims took on their journey, the dangers and rest stops that awaited them. Young visitors will be able to obtain a "Pilgrim's Passport", which not only has space for stamps, but also includes puzzles and tasks.

The new exhibition is dedicated to one of the oldest women's convents in Vilnius, dating back to the 6th century, which was founded and flourished more than 400 years ago. The exhibits reflect the external and internal aspects of the life of the Vilnius Benedictine Nuns, from the founding and flourishing of the community to the tragic fate of the twentieth century, which divided the community and its heritage. For the first time in one place, the collected paintings of St Catherine's Church, liturgical vessels, library treasures, and photographs of ceremonies and daily life are displayed. A beautiful collection of 12 reliquaries is presented - a combination of careful Benedictine handwork and prayer. The portrait of Abbess Konstancja Tyzenhauzówna from the late 17th century, which has been preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw, and the unique pastoral of the abbess, preserved in Vilnius, are the most impressive exhibits. The story of St Catherine's Church is told, with some of the surviving paintings by Szymon Czechowicz and his workshop on display in the normally closed part of the museum, the cloistered corridor.