Rainiai Chapel of Suffering Memorial site

Rainiai Passion Chapel is located in the village of Rainiai, 5 km from Telšiai, next to road 160 Telšiai-Varniai - Laukuva.

in 1941 June 25-26 One of the worst massacres in the history of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania took place in Rainiai forest. At night, 75 political prisoners of Telšiai prison were brutally tortured by the Red Army and the repressive institutions of the USSR. The victims buried in a common grave were found a few days later by a passer-by.

To honor the victims of the massacres, according to the idea of the architect Jonas Viraks in 1943. the construction of the Chapel began. The return of Soviet power in 1944 demolished it. Later in 1990, after the regaining of Lithuania's independence, the architect A. Žebrauskas, according to the same author's drawings, began to build another chapel. The chapel was consecrated in 1991. June 23 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Rainai massacre.

The Rainiai Suffering Chapel is dedicated not only to the memory of the Rainiai martyrs, but also perpetuates the memory of all victims of Soviet terror. A stone cross carved by the sculptor R. Midvikis was erected in the forest near the chapel, where political prisoners were tortured. 3 more wooden crosses painted in the colors of the national flag stand on the way. They were built by the local people shortly after the massacre, but the thugs drowned them in the Viešvėnai pond. Only recently, after the pond was drained, the crosses were found, painted and restored.