Plungės Šv. Jono Krikštytojo bažnyčia

The Church of St John the Baptist in Plungė rises on the left bank of the Babrungas river, in the town of Plungė, and is one of the largest churches in the whole of Lithuania – its length reaches as much as 75 metres.

A Catholic church with a parish school had already been operating in Plungė by 1617, and in 1797, through the efforts of the priest Adomas Paulauskas, a wooden church was built. The present masonry church took a long time to build – 1902–1933, to a design by the engineer Steponas Stulginskis; the foundations were consecrated on 5 September 1905 by Bishop Mečislovas Paliulionis, and the completed church was consecrated on 24 September 1933 by Bishop Justinas Staugaitis. The interior was completed in 1940.

The red-brick building combines Gothic Revival and pseudo-Romanesque features and is regarded as a significant example of Romanesque Revival in Lithuania. It is a three-aisled basilica on a Latin-cross plan with two towers; inside there are seven oak altars. The church houses a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, regarded as miraculous, moved here in 1810, and in the churchyard stands a monument to the 500th anniversary of the Baptism of Lithuania (1987), created by Vilius Orvydas.