Gothic architecture in Lithuania
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Lithuania is not the very centre of Gothic architecture, but it provides a number of examples, partly very different and some quite unique.
Conditions
Slavic and Orthodox majority of subjects. The centre of power of this large state lay among Kaunas, Trakai and Vilnius
.
The marriage of Grand Duke
Queen of Poland Jadwiga began the personal union of Lithuania and Poland. After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and by the Treaty of Melno in 1422 the attacks of the Teutonic Order ceased. After the Second Peace of Thorn
, the Order was not any more a serious competitor in the region.
Buildings
Castles with hard walls
Castles built of stones and bricks, dates of the first complete building after wooden precursors:
- Kaunas Castle, built in the mid 14th century, explored by Teutonic Knights in 1361 and destroyed in 1362, in 1384 once more conquered by the Order and reconquered by the Lithuanians,
- Trakai Peninsula Castle, 1350–1377,
- Trakai Island Castle, Fortifications built in the second half of the 14th century, palace after 1410,
- Medininkai Castle, 1392, after mid 15th century residential
- Gediminas' Tower in Vilnius, completed 1409.[2]
Almost all Lithuanian medieval castles and fortifications were built of wood and earth.
First churches
Orthodox cathedral of Vilnius
The oldest church in Lithuania, built from bricks, is the Orthodox
Neo-Byzantine, and most of the walls are plastered.[3]
Brick Gothic
After Jogaila had been baptized a Catholic, the country officially became Catholic, and churches were built also for the Grand Duchy's Lithuanian population. Soon the most important churches were erected in Brick Gothic:
- Saint Nicholas Church in Vilnius, 1387
- Vytautas' the Great Church in Kaunas, c. 1400
- St George's Church in Kėdainiai, 1403
- Baroque style[4]
- Franciscan Church of the Assumption of Mary in Vilnius, after a wooden precursor of 1387 in bricks since 1410, destroyed several times by fire, since 1671–1675 mainly Baroque.
Late Gothic
Flamboyant style
In the
late Gothic period, two exceptional buildings were built in Lithuania, following the abundant French Flamboyant
style, but realized in bricks.
- The Society of Jesus. The present name is derived from a small picture that was found at the wall and was considered an image of a Baltic thunder god by romantic historians.[5]
- Church of St. Anne, Vilnius, 1495 - 1500.[6]
See also
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gothic architecture in Lithuania.
- ^ As late as 1448, the Russian Church split from the Greek one by choosing a Russian metropolite.
- ^ "National Museum of Lithuania: History of Gediminas Castle Tower ". Archived from the original on December 28, 2015.
- ^ "Вильнюсский Пречистенский Собор". bratstvoprav.narod.ru.
- ^ "Jono Pauliaus II piligrimų kelias. Basilica". www.piligrimukelias.lt.
- ^ Lithuanian inventory of monuments : Namas, vad. Perkūno
- ^ "Sightseeing Vilnius - Vilnius city guide | St Anne's and Bernadine's Churches". www.sightseeing-vilnius.com.