Summary

Architecture of Gruzdžiai District sacral buildings and the Gruzdžiai estate

Marija Rupeikienė

The architecture of sacral buildings and their complexes in Gruzdžiai Valsčius (rural district), as well as architecture of the Gruzdžiai estate are described in the article. The ensemble of Gruzdžiai church and churchyard buildings is compounded of the church, the fence with 14 chapels of the Way of the Cross, the Saint Roch chapel and four gates. The church is a two-towered three-nave pseudo-basilica of neo-Gothic forms. Other buildings of the ensemble–the chapel, little chapels and the gates–are also of neo-Gothic forms. All these were built at the end of the 19th century of red brinks and not plastered. Only the former hospital was set of stones and bricks during the Romanticism period in 1843, and the rectory was constructed of timber in 1876.

The church of Šiupyliai was built of timber in 1924. It is a one-nave hall-shape building of simple folk forms. Its campanile was built in the 19th century and its forms are monumental and of folk architecture. The rectory and outhouse (house of servants, cellar and stable) is located eastwards of the church. The plan structure of the Šiupyliai rectory compound was close to the estate.

The church of Šakyna is one-towered stone building constructed during the Classicism period in 1789. Its architecture is close to Scandinavian sacral buildings. Barn and graveyard chapel of Šakyna is also built of stone. Graveyard chapel is one-towered and resembles Šakyna church.

The Gruzdžiai estate is mentioned in the 16th century. The first brick buildings originated at the end of the 18th –the beginning of the 19th century. Now there are 23 buildings which survived and most of them were built in the second half of the 19th century and can be attributed to a so called brick style.