Bažnytkaimių vertė ir savastis kultūriniame kraštovaizdyje

LTStraipsnyje aptariama bažnytkaimio, kaip savito istorinio Lietuvos gyvenvietės tipo, samprata, jos semantinė reikšmė. Apibendrintai pateikiama bažnytkaimio formavimosi, sklaidos, funkcinės ir tipologinės kaitos analizė. Tiriamos bažnytkaimių formavimosi priežastys ir sklaidos ypatumai dabartinėje Lietuvos teritorijoje. Analizuojant istorinių Lietuvos gyvenviečių reikšmę dabartinėje apgyvendinimo sistemoje pagal nustatytus atrankos kriterijus siūloma išskirti dabartinę bažnytkaimių grupę, kaip savitas istorines urbanistinio paveldo vietoves, svarbius Lietuvos kraštovaizdžio komponentus.

ENVillages with churches form a significant part in the urban framework of Lithuania, and they are inseparable components of the cultural landscape. Beginning with the end of the 18th century villages with churches have fully functioned together with towns and village settlements of the country. Their functional development and formation of the urban structure are closely related with the expansion of Christianity in Lithuania. The formation of compositional links between villages with churches and the rural landscape was mainly influenced by their urban structure determined by the canons of the Catholic Church. The network of villages with churches determined the cultural distinctiveness of Lithuanian rural landscape till the middle of the 20th century. Considering that the preservation of identity and distinctiveness of Lithuanian countryside requires the analysis of villages with churches and their role in the country’s landscape, this article analyzes the changes in compositional features of villages with churches in the spatial structure of the rural landscapes and the factors determining these changes. In order to perceive deeper their compositional features of the spatial structure in the ethno-cultural landscape, assessment of the aesthetic potential of the their layout and spatial structure is also presented. Around 70% of the analyzed villages with churches are currently the accumulations of large volumes visually dominating in the rural landscape. Their silhouettes have lost their compositional distinctiveness in Lithuanian rural landscapes formed in the past by the religious function. Compositional links of villages with churches with the natural environment in the spatial structure of the rural landscape are defined by the features of the urban structures and their changes.Until the middle of the 20th century, villages with churches, as the spatial structures of the landscape, shaped mainly by the religious function had constituted characteristic panoramas of rural landscape together with the natural elements. Analysis of the changes in the compositional structure of villages with churches of the Soviet period has indicated that those villages with churches which were attributed to the category of the non-perspective agricultural settlements during the Soviet reform of the settlements system were the least modified; meanwhile, the villages with churches attributed to the group of central settlements of collective farms underwent major transformations of their composition. Results of the assessment of aesthetic potential and characteristic compositional features of the layout and spatial structure of villages with churches have demonstrated that only the settlements with a number of residents lower than 150 have retained the authentic silhouette formed up to the middle of the 20th century; however, the infrastructure and services in these settlements are minimal. Analysis of the institutional features has shown that 36% of the analyzed villages with churches existing in Alytus, Kaunas, and Marijampolė regions have possibly retained the authentic silhouette formed till the middle of the 20th century.