About the Church
The Church of St Dominic in Pasiene is one of the most famous Baroque churches in Latgale, standing in the village of Pasiene, right on Latvia's eastern border, in the Ludza region. It is also known as the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
In 1694, at the invitation of the Livonian bishop Mikalojus Poplavskis, twelve Dominicans came to Pasiene from Lithuania and built a wooden church and monastery. After the wooden building burned down in 1753, the Dominicans built the present masonry church in 1761. The monastery was closed in 1832, and a fire in 1882 damaged the roof and towers; the building was renovated in the 1930s and again in 2008.
The church was built in the Polish (East European) Baroque style with Rococo elements, as a single-nave structure, 24 metres long and 12 metres wide, with two three-storey towers. Its pink-and-white interior is graced by four altars, adorned with plaster sculptures and gilded Rococo and Baroque ornaments; all of them are regarded as art monuments.
The church is included in the list of state-protected cultural monuments, and since 1999 also among the European Heritage Days sites. Because of its beauty and historical significance it is sometimes called the "mother of the Aglona Basilica".
In 1694, at the invitation of the Livonian bishop Mikalojus Poplavskis, twelve Dominicans came to Pasiene from Lithuania and built a wooden church and monastery. After the wooden building burned down in 1753, the Dominicans built the present masonry church in 1761. The monastery was closed in 1832, and a fire in 1882 damaged the roof and towers; the building was renovated in the 1930s and again in 2008.
The church was built in the Polish (East European) Baroque style with Rococo elements, as a single-nave structure, 24 metres long and 12 metres wide, with two three-storey towers. Its pink-and-white interior is graced by four altars, adorned with plaster sculptures and gilded Rococo and Baroque ornaments; all of them are regarded as art monuments.
The church is included in the list of state-protected cultural monuments, and since 1999 also among the European Heritage Days sites. Because of its beauty and historical significance it is sometimes called the "mother of the Aglona Basilica".