During a renovation of a church in Vilnius, Lithuania it was discovered that Jewish headstones had been used to build the stairs of the front entrance.
The grave markers, which contained barely visible Hebrew inscriptions, were removed from the Evangelical Reformist Church, which was the Chronika Cinema during the Soviet era. The stones were returned to the Jewish community, the Lithuanian Cultural Infrastructure Center said.
Local residents had noticed inscriptions on the stones which members of the Lithuanian Jewish community concluded were Jewish headstones whose inscriptions had faded with age and were barely visible, according to news outlet LZB.
The Lithuanian Cultural Heritage Department agreed with their assessment and the stairs were moved to the old Jewish cemetery of Vilnius.
Subsequently, the stairs on the other sides of the church were also determined to have come from Jewish grave markers and they were moved to Verkiai-Pavilniai Regional Park next to the old Jewish cemetery.