Francisk Skaryna Vilnius Gymnasium

The history of Vilnius Pranciskaus Skorinos Gymnasium goes back to the last century. The Vilnius Belarusian Gymnasium (VBG) opened its doors on the 1^st of February 1919. The opening of the gymnasium took place in times of a very unstable and difficult political situation – World War I. The Germans gave permission to open the gymnasium in the autumn of 1918, on the eve of their retreat from Vilnius. After the Germans left, the Council of Lithuania (Lith. Taryba) took power. The Council of Lithuania also gave its permission to open VBG. According to the order of the Minister of Education Mykolas Birziska dated from 1^st of January 1919, a room in the building of the ensemble of Basilian monks (previously Aušros Vartų str. 9; nowadays Didžioji str. 49) was allocated to the Belarusian society. This building had already housed an Orthodox seminary that taught the Belarusian language. Initially, there were two primary classes at the VBG, where mostly orphans were taught; and 8 gymnasium classes. At the time of the opening of the Gymnasium, more than 340 students were studying there. The main initiator of the establishment of the Gymnasium was the archaeologist Ivan Lutskevich.

In 1944, the Soviet authorities closed the VBG that had operated under Polish rule and during the German occupation.

In 1994, a Belarusian secondary school No. 68 was established in Vilnius. In 1997, it was named after F. Skaryna and received the status of a gymnasium in 2013.