Piarists together with the Jesuits were active in the education field, establishing schools and academies.

The new Romanticism style Dūkštos stone church designed by Tomasz Tyszecki and Friedrich Gustav von Schacht was built in 1850–1856.

Among sponsors of these construction works was the famous composer Stanisław Moniuszko.

A painting, that once belonged to Adam Mickiewicz, was brought from Paris and donated to the church.

A number of prominent 18th–19th-century Lithuanian Piarists and professors of Vilnius University were buried in the cemetery by the church.