Summary

The architecture of sacral buildings and parish houses in the area of Žarėnai

Marija Rupeikienė, Antanas Rupeika

Sacral buildings stand in Žarėnai, Lauko Soda and Medingėnai. In Žarėnai there are a Catholic church, a belfry, small sacral buildings, two cemeteries, a cemetery chapel, and several parish buildings. There was also a synagogue in the block between the northern cemetery and the churchyard. The church is wooden, two-tower, three-aisle pseudobasilic. Its architecture is of fragmented character. In the exterior, the modernized Neo-Gothic forms are originally intertwined with restrained details of the modernised order and various plank siding. The interior is dominated by a modern stylised three-aisle space with Neo-Gothic elements and fragments of decorative paintings on walls and ceilings matching them. Belfry is of simple ethnic architecture forms and belongs to a rather rare type of belfries; it has two purpose rooms: a bell tower and a mortuary; moreover, the belfry construction site is unconventional, situated behind the church apse. The churchyard is of an irregular hexagonal plan, uneven relief, fenced by a stone masonry wall with one large and four narrow gates.  There is a chapel in the Catholic cemetery in the southern part of the town. It is of a simple size, made of stones and red bricks, rectangular in the plan. The chapel’s architecture forms are laconic; the interior space is covered with a wooden cylindrical vault. The cemetery is surrounded by a stone masonry fence with two gates. Now in the old parsonage homestead there is a parsonage and two outbuildings. In Lauko Soda, there is a Catholic church, a belfry, small sacral buildings, and parsonage homestead. The church is wooden, of simple forms, in which elements of ethnic and professional architecture intertwine; the interior is notable for bright stylised features of Neo-Baroque and Neo-Classicism. The bell tower is of ethnic architecture and simple forms; an unconventional second-stage solution provides it some richness. The churchyard is of an irregular quadrangular plan; it is surrounded by a stone masonry fence with two gates. There is a parsonage and two outbuildings in the parsonage homestead. In Medingėnai, there is a Catholic church, a belfry, small sacral buildings, and the remains of the basement of the old parsonage homestead. The church is wooden, two-tower, with pseudobasilic spaces. Its exterior is dominated by Neo-Gothic forms, there are some stylised order elements, while the decor of the lower casings of the windows is typical of ethnic architecture. The interior also features a stylistic combination of Neo-Gothic and modified order forms. The bell tower is made of stones and red bricks; it is two-staged, square plan. It belongs to the historicism period, laconic architecture, with stylised order elements. The churchyard is of an irregular octagonal plan, flat relief, stone masonry fence with a large gate and three smaller ones. A parsonage homestead was established away from the churchyard.