Description
A chapel has stood in Aviliai since ancient times; at the beginning of the 18th century it was run by Piarist monks from Vilnius, who founded a parish school beside it. When the Antazavė parish was established in 1794, Aviliai was assigned to Antazavė. In 1817, with funds from the landowner Gertrūda Klikovičiūtė-Kaminskienė, the Aviliai church was built on the site of the old chapel and was consecrated the same year by the Dusetos parish priest, Canon Jonas Stanevičius. In 1875 the church was renovated with funds from Tomas Kžyvecas, owner of the Vencavai manor, and was dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The 19th-century wooden church of Aviliai village has a traditional form – an elongated rectangle with a modest façade without a portico. The triangular pediment is decorated with a semicircular window with radiating glazing bars. On the roof is a small tower with a bell-shaped cupola and an ornate iron cross; another openwork iron cross stands at the end of the gable roof. The interior is divided into three naves by six wooden columns. There is a sacristy on each side of the presbytery. The churchyard is enclosed by a stone wall with a three-arched iron gate between brick pillars.
