Published: 2023-12-30

St. Anne’s and St. Barbara’s Church at the Vilnius Castle. Unfinished royal mauzoleum

Karol Guttmejer
Artifex Novus
Section: Artykuły tematyczne
https://doi.org/10.21697/an.13458

Abstract

Archaeological research from 1955 to 1959 in the Lower Castle in Vilnius discovered the foundations of the Renaissance church of St. Anna and st. Barbara. It was built from 1571 on the foundation of King Sigismund Augustus as a burial place for him and his two wives. The temple was not completed. Its walls were demolished in 1666.

It was to be a large church with a nave with an internal length of 29 m and a width of 11,60 m, with a semicircular façade closure, unusual at that time, and a very narrow presbytery. The reading of the king's will from 1571 allowed for the reconstruction of the location of the planned tombstones of the king and his two wives and one altar. They were to be placed in the corners of the nave, on the chancel wall on the sides of the presbytery arcade and on the longitudinal walls. The unique semicircular closure of the facade probably referred to the function of the royal church – a mausoleum.

Keywords:

Vilnius, St. Anne’s and st. Barbara’s church, mausoleum, Sigismund Augustus, Giovanni Cini

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Citation rules

Guttmejer, K. (2023). St. Anne’s and St. Barbara’s Church at the Vilnius Castle. Unfinished royal mauzoleum. Artifex Novus, (7), 4–25. https://doi.org/10.21697/an.13458

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