About the Church
Gižai Church of St Anthony of Padua is a Gothic Revival church built in 1850 of stone masonry. It stands in Gižai, Vilkaviškis district, about 1 km from the A7 highway Marijampolė–Kybartai–Kaliningrad. The church's history includes an earlier wooden church; the present building, built by the Italian architect Henryk Marconi, was erected by the owners of Gižai manor after the wooden church burned down in 1834. A parish school operated by the church, and parish priest Lukas Staugaitis founded a branch of the "Žiburys" society with a library-reading room. The church has a rectangular plan and small towers. The churchyard wall is also of stone masonry. The parish also includes the Paežeriai Chapel of St Anthony.