Lietuvos sakralinė dailė. T. 2, Šiaulių vyskupija. D. 2, Šiaulių dekanatas. Kn. 3, Kužiai – Pavėkiai

LTŠi knyga – tęstinio daugiatomio mokslinio veikalo Lietuvos sakralinė dailė, antrojo tomo Šiaulių vyskupija, 2 dalies Šiaulių dekanatas 3 knyga. Joje pristatomi Kužių, Meškuičių, Micaičių ir Pakapės bažnyčių istorija, architektūra ir dailės kūriniai, aprašomi Mimaičių, Ožkėnų ir Pavėkių senųjų kapinių mažosios architektūros paminklai. Tai nuosekli, išsamiais istoriniais ir menotyriniais tyrimais pagrįsta Šiaulių vyskupijos bažnyčių ir koplyčių paveldo publikacija.

ENBook 3 of Part 2 “Deanery of Šiauliai” of Volume II “Diocese of Šiauliai” of the serial publication “Lithuanian Religious Art” further presents the architectural and artistic heritage of churches and chapels from Šiauliai Deanery. Two earlier books dedicated to this Deanery described the history, architecture and art of the churches of Aukštelkė, Bazilionai, Gruzdžiai, Juozapava, Kairiai, Kuršėnai, and Kurtuvėnai, and the chapels of Agailiai, Bridai, Gordai, Kalviškiai, and Kybarčiai, as well as the Hill of Crosses site with a chapel and a Franciscan monastery (in the books, all houses of prayer were arranged in alphabetical order based on their geographical names). Book 3 of the Šiauliai Deanery of Šiauliai Diocese presents the research of the churches of Kužiai, Meškuičiai, Micaičiai and Pakapė as well as small cemetery shrines and chapels in Mimaičiai, Ožkėnai and Pavėkiai. Similarly to the previous books from the “Lithuanian Religious Art” series, in this book heritage research data are presented as texts of various lengths arranged like in a catalogue, i.e. for each church or chapel, its valuable artistic items are arranged based on their type (starting with altars and finishing with bells or outdoor monuments) and the time of their creation. The book strongly focuses on the history and architecture of the churches and chapels being described. The majority of data have been collected during expeditions to the churches and chapels of Šiauliai Deanery: an ongoing in situ inspection, expert assessment and photographing of these art works has been carried out since 2014.The screening of items to be published was mainly based on their artistic and historical value, but some other criteria were also taken into account, such as the rarity of the artefacts, their typological peculiarities, or their significance in the context of vanishing traditions. Simultaneously with the expeditions, the historical research of parishes, churches, chapels, and their valuable items was carried out in Lithuanian archives, museums, libraries, parish archives and private collections. The majority of the heritage items included in all books of these series are being published for the first time and their historical research is often based on textual and iconographic sources that have not been used yet. Book 3 of the Šiauliai Deanery of Šiauliai Diocese describes four churches from this region that have not attracted the attention of researchers until now. Two of them (Meškuičiai and Pakapė churches) used to be filial churches till mid-19th century: the former belonged to Šiauliai parish and the latter to Kurtuvėnai parish; therefore, their history is closely related to the temples with an honourable past and the collections of their heritage reflect this long-standing relationship.