St. John the Baptist Church is a Roman Catholic church in Židikai. The community worshiped in a wooden chapel as early as 1636. The current stone church, constructed in 1821, reflects Classicism and Romantic period features. In 1842 the current belfry was built. In 1853 there was established a parish and priest Jonas Vaškevičius became the first parson of Židikai parish. Around 1861 the church was renovated and decorated. On 20 May 1862 bishop of SamogitiaMotiejus Valančius consecrated the church.
In 1900 current pastorage was built. In this building from 1915 until her death in 1930 lived Lithuanian authoress and educational Šatrijos Ragana. In her honor wooden cross was built in churcyard. In 1940-1944 the priest at that time Vaclovas Martinkus built a new two storey pastorage of stone however it was nationalised by the soviets and became a hospital.
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Built around AD 90 to entertain the legionaries stationed at the fort of Caerleon (Isca), the impressive amphitheatre was the Roman equivalent of today’s multiplex cinema. Wooden benches provided seating for up to 6,000 spectators, who would gather to watch bloodthirsty displays featuring gladiatorial combat and exotic wild animals.
Long after the Romans left, the amphitheatre took on a new life in Arthurian legend. Geoffrey of Monmouth, the somewhat imaginative 12th-century scholar, wrote in his History of the Kings of Britain that Arthur was crowned in Caerleon and that the ruined amphitheatre was actually the remains of King Arthur’s Round Table.
Today it is the most complete Roman amphitheatre in Britain.