Gothic architecture in Lithuania

Lithuania is not the very centre of Gothic architecture, but it provides a number of examples, partly very different and some quite unique.Lithuania, situated at the border of Greek[1] and Roman Church had developed by the defence of its paganism, especially against the Teutonic Order to become a state and in the 14th century a major power.

[citation needed] The territory of nowaday's republic, except Lithuania Minor, which was ruled by the Teutonic Order, was the Lithuanian speaking part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, with its Slavic and Orthodox majority of subjects.

After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and by the Treaty of Melno in 1422 the attacks of the Teutonic Order ceased.

The oldest church in Lithuania, built from bricks, is the Orthodox Cathedral of the Theotokos, Vilnius.

It was constructed in 1346, when the Renaissance style had not yet arrived in central Europe, and in the Grand Duchy only the Slavic population was Christian.