About the Church
The Church of Jesus of Nazareth stands in the village of Būdvietis, Lazdijai district, just a few kilometres from the border between Lithuania and Poland, on the southwestern edge of Dzūkija.
The first wooden chapel was built here in 1820, and the present wooden church was built in 1906 by Father Jonas Grajauskas. An independent parish was established in Būdvietis in 1920, and in 1936 the church was extended with a porch with two towers and a sacristy. The wooden church, in a vernacular style with a Baroque tinge, is marked by regular proportions, polygonal towers with pyramidal roofs, and a three-aisled interior divided by columns.
The memory of Father Juozapas Marčiukonis is closely linked with this place. Persecuted by the Soviets, he went into hiding in 1947–1950 and died underground in 1950; in 1989 his remains were solemnly reburied in the churchyard. A 19th-century red-brick mausoleum also survives here, recalling the region's distant past.
The first wooden chapel was built here in 1820, and the present wooden church was built in 1906 by Father Jonas Grajauskas. An independent parish was established in Būdvietis in 1920, and in 1936 the church was extended with a porch with two towers and a sacristy. The wooden church, in a vernacular style with a Baroque tinge, is marked by regular proportions, polygonal towers with pyramidal roofs, and a three-aisled interior divided by columns.
The memory of Father Juozapas Marčiukonis is closely linked with this place. Persecuted by the Soviets, he went into hiding in 1947–1950 and died underground in 1950; in 1989 his remains were solemnly reburied in the churchyard. A 19th-century red-brick mausoleum also survives here, recalling the region's distant past.