Juroje

Here are a few pictures from a weekend trip we took to the Baltic coast.

So our first stop was a church and monastery where one of my cousins is in Kretinga. He gave us the tour of this beautiful church built to stop the spread of Protestant religions at that time. This cross was the cross used to "baptize" Lithuania into Catholicism.
This is the oldest organ in Lithuania.
This is the altar. Look closely at the statues. They look so good and yet they are hundreds of years old and made of wood. Just look at the picture below to see the back of the altar and see what the statues look like from behind.

My cousin the Franciscan with Ignas and Ričardas
So in the background is what was used for the choir originally during mass. These wooden pieces were moved to the current room now and will be restored by my cousin's (the monk) father. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see Franciscan martyrs throughout history. The pictures are a little gruesome.
Here are the caskets of the original founders of the church here in Kretinga. It is part of the catacombs of the church.

This is an altar made in the catacombs. As the story goes many people told my cousin when he came there that there had been people burned alive in the church by Sweeden as a revenge against Lithuania and its ruler. When my cousin started remodeling the church, they found that the story was true when they broke through a wall and found many skeletons. The altar was put at that spot and the skeletons were put into the altar as you can see from the picture.
beautiful woodwork in the church

After the church, we went to a museum and winter house.
Taking an illegal picture.

An interesting plant
Oops... more pictures of the church. Here you can see it from the outside. There was a wedding that was about to take place. The bride is waiting for her groom to ride up in a motorcycle.
A beautiful picture of Mary
A picture of St. Anthony with a relic of his. This place is actually only behind Padua for having recorded miracles attributed to St. Anthony's intercession. Many people would make pilgrimages here but since after World War II, they have declined.
Finally, after the winter house and museum, we went to the seashore at Palanga, a beach town nearby. Here my cousins are on the boardwalk.

There was a display of Easter eggs from around Europe on the walkway.
Ok, so I guess I really had this all out of order. Here is the winter house again. I took a picture from above and got 2 newlyweds with it too who were taking pictures of their own. I guess that was the day to get married.