Prienų Kristaus Apsireiškimo bažnyčia : architektūra ir sakralinės dailės vertybės

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Prienai; Bažnyčia; Istorija; Architektūra; Sakralinė dailė; Prienai; Church; History; Architecture; Sacral Art.

ENPrienai church of The Annunciation of The Christ - one of the most significant churches in the whole Užnemunė region. First of all, for its importance in believers’ life, but also as a remarkable monument of religious art. First curch in Prienai was built in 1609 (it burnt down during the war of 1655), the second - in 1674, the third, present o n e ,-in 1750. It was repaired in 1782, 1837, 1850, renovated and enlarged a little - in 1785. This is the oldest and most valuable wooden baroque church in Vilkaviškis diocese. Ensemble of five altars, the pulpit and the prospect of organ in late baroque style predominating in the interior of the shrine is one of the most artistic in the architecture of Lithuania of the middle of the 18th century. Some altars, their sculptures and paintings in a course of time changed the place, two altars out of seven did not remain. Two lateral altars - those of St.Judas Tadas and the Venerable Jurgis Matulaitis (former St. John Nepomucene)- together with the sculptures of St.Peter and Paul were created between 1759 and 1767. They are decorated with ornaments of regency stylistics, in the 19th century renewed by neobaroque carvings. The High and the transept altars, their impressive sculptures and the pulpit created in 1767-1769 are in late baroque style influenced by rococo already which is characteristic to the ornamentation of the equipment. The organ prospect was mounted together with the greater part of the emsemble but between 1782 and 1804 was reinstalled and decorated with sculptures of angels. It has been changed a little later too. Stained glass made in the St.Lukas workshop in Warsaw in 1894 adorn the windows above the High and the transept altars.The oldest painting of the church is “St. Anne The Third” painted in the middle of the 17th century and repainted in the 20th century. Ornamented metal casing (the first half of the 18th cent.), coronals (the middle of the 18th cent.) decorating it are very valuable. Two artistic altar paintings “The Assumption.” and “St.Judas Tadas” are contemporaneous with the ensemble of altars. The painting “The Magi” painted before 1804 having features of early classicism is valuable too. Other noteworthy paintings were painted by Augustinas Strungė, Juozapas Tadas Polkovskis and an unknown painter (“The Baptism”) already after the renovation of the church in the period 1877-1893. Four crucifixes which can be placed on the altars created together with the equipment of the church can be valued as expressive examples of fine plastic art of rococo. Other crucifixes of the church are pieces of more primitive sculpture of the 19-20th centuries. Two reliquaries of the middle of the 18th century put on a little later pedestals are the oldest and most artistic among liturgical dishes. Three Mass chalices, two monstrances and ciborium made by Lithuanian and Polish goldsmiths or workshops represent ornaments of the second quarter of the 19th century-the end of the 19th century, the period of recurrency of styles.A small portable altar made in the third quarter of the 18th century (also in the period of formation of the interior) distinguishes among articles used during processions. Other three articles used for the same purpose were made in Juozapas Zenkevičius (Kaunas) and Adomas Karalius (Marijampolė) workshops in the first third of the 20th century. Bells of Prienai church are worth mentioning too. The older bell was cast by Vincentas VIodkovskis in Ružana in 1833, the newer one - by C. Stoermer in Erfurt in 1925. An ornamented cross of beautiful silhouette made by a blacksmith and raised above the gazebo of the church apse is a frequent decoration of Lithuanian churches. A mortuary chapel of the Šiukštos family of classicism style of the beginning of the 19th century stands in the churchyard, only two out of four chapels of the same style on the comers of the churchyard remained. Art valuables of Prienai church were created at different time and vary in artistic expression. Still, it should be noted that the same festal and solemn spirit of the baroque epoch formed by the architecture, its equipment and partially reflected in all the other pieces of art or at least consistent to it, prevails in the interior of the church. [From the publication]