Published: 22023-12-30 — Updated on 2024-01-14

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History and architecture of the Augustinian Hermits Church in Vilnius

Zuzanna Rejewska
Artifex Novus
Section: Artykuły tematyczne
https://doi.org/10.21697/an.13460

Abstract

Augustinian hermits, also called “Marcinkans” in Vilnius, arrived in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1670. Numerous donations made it possible to erect a brick temple several decades after their arrival in the city. It was not the result of the desire to show the importance and wealth of the order, but the need related to the fire that destroyed the earlier wooden buildings.

The architect who designed the new temple made the tower its most beautiful and original element. He perfectly inscribed the church in the existing, irregular urban layout. The architectural decoration and the way the tower is shaped, with the storeys narrowing along with the height, indicate that the building belongs to the Vilnius Baroque school. Although the body of the temple does not show the basic feature of the phenomenon, which is the two-tower façade. Researchers trace the genesis of the above-mentioned features of the Vilnius Baroque in Italy or in the South German countries, which were then prominent artistic centers. Inspiration was found for the Vilnius church from the aforementioned areas – the Hofkirche in Dresden. The two temples are connected by the existence of a tower on the main axis of the church. However, they differ in terms of the plan, number of storeys of towers, or architectural decoration. The thesis repeated many times in the literature seems easy to refute. The erection of only one tower in the façade was influenced by the limited funds of the Vilnius convent of Augustinian hermits as a bourgeois foundation, as well as the order's construction practice. It should be noted that churches with one tower in the facade constituted a kind of traditional construction in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the entire Republic of Poland.

Keywords:

Vilnius, church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Consolation, Vilnian Baroque, Augustinian-Hermits church in Vilnius

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Rejewska, Z. (2024). History and architecture of the Augustinian Hermits Church in Vilnius. Artifex Novus, (7), 58–77. https://doi.org/10.21697/an.13460 (Original work published December 30, 2023)

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