Architektura trynitarzy na ziemiach dawnej Rzeczypospolitej

Abstract

Discalced Trinitarians were brought to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1685 by King John III Sobieski due to their redemption activity, highly desirable in a country embroiled in wars with the Ottoman Empire. On account of a fast growth of the order, a separate St. Joachim province was established in 1727. By the end of the eighteenth century, within the borders of the pre-partitioned Commonwealth, there existed thirty Trinitarian establishments, first and foremost, owing to the generosity of mighty patrons who settled friars in existing temples or built new, usually wooden churches and monasteries. The majority of these were, with time, replaced by masonry constructions. In total, 19 masonry church-monastery complexes were erected: in Vilnius (on Antokol, Lithuanian: Antakalnis), Warsaw (in Solec), Lviv intra moenia, Berestechko, Trynitopol (Lithuanian: Trinapolio, Stanisławów (Ukrainian: Ivano-Frankivsk), Lutsk, Orsha, Brest- on-the-Bug, Lviv extra moenia, Teofilpol (Ukrainian: Teofipol’), Bursztyn (Ukrainian: Burshtin), Cracow, Kamieniec Podolski (Ukrainian: Kam’ianets’- Podil’s’kyi), Brahiłów (Ukrainian: Brailiv), Krotoszyn, Krzywicze (Belarusian: Kryvichy), Vitebsk and Rzyszczów (Ukrainian: Rzhishchiv). Moreover, there were unfinished churches in Lublin and Teofilpol (after the first temple was demolished), and monasteries in Tomaszów Lubelski, Mołodeczno (Belarusian: Maladzyechna) and Mielec. Presently, the most of order’s establishments are located outside the borders of Poland, in the territory of Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus. Since the very first statutes passed in 1614 and inspired by the legislation of the Spanish congregation of Discalced Carmelites, constitutions of Discalced Trinitarians contained regulations regarding the construction work by the order. In Spanish provinces they adhered to the rule of building at little cost (“parvis expensis”) of simple structures (“plani operis”) while observing fixed dimensions. In Commonwealth, this principle was compromised as early as during the construction of the oldest masonry church-monastery complex in Vilnius begun in 1694 and supervised by Spanish friars. Thus, the width of the Vilnius temple is 18 meters, which is more than twice the maximum allowed width (27 Castilian feet is roughly equal to 7.5 meters). Furthermore, the employment of eminent artists, like the designer of the vault with a span unparalleled in the Commonwealth (probably Giovanni Battista Frediani) and a sculptor Giovanni Pietro Perti – author of a magnificent stucco decoration, required substantial financial outlays. Disobeying constructional norms in the case of Vilnius and many other foundations was motivated by the Sarmatian piety of a mighty patron and his desire to demonstrate the importance of his family. The final structure reflected, to a great extent, both his artistic taste and financial possibilities. Supposedly because of this, in constitutions written for the entire order in 1738, there appeared a regulation that gave permission to exceed the maximum dimensions in large cities. Eventually, these were omitted in the statues accepted by “Outside-Spain-Family” (encompassing Polish-Lithuanian, Austrian and Italian provinces) in 1770. Even if an investor had a precise vision of a structure, its final shape was determined by the ingenuity, knowledge and capabilities of the project’s designer and builders. Source research revealed only the names of architects or builders of the churches in Lviv extra moenia (father Kazimierz of the Heart of Jesus Granacki OSST), Bursztyn (Ignacy Napiórkowski and Andreas Schülcer), Cracow (Francesco Placidi) and Krotoszyn (Ignatz Krebs), and of the monastery in Warsaw (father Aleksander of Conception Więcławski OSST). Nevertheless, the circumstances of construction along with a stylistic-comparative analysis let us attribute the temple in Vilnius to Giovanni Battista Frediani, the temples in Warsaw and Lviv intra moenia to Tylman from Gameren, another one in Teofilpol to Francesco Placidi, and the church-monastery complex in Brahiłów as well as the monastery wicket in Lviv intra moenia to Bernard Meretyn. The majority of churches in the territories of the Commonwealth had a traditional longitudinal ground plan. The three-nave basilicas or temples with a single nave flanked by two rows of connected chapels, occasionally with a transept in line with the main body of the church, were erected in Lviv (intra moenia and extra moenia), Berestechko, Lutsk, Stanisławów, Brahiłów, Vitebsk and Teofilopol (the second temple). Furthermore, single- -nave churches were constructed in Bursztyn, Krzywicze and Rzyszczów. A central plan was used in churches in Vilnius (regular octagon) and Warsaw (Greek cross), while central-longitudinal plan was applied to the temples in Trynitopol, Orsha, Brest-on-the-Bug and Krotoszyn. In one of these groups belonged the first church of the order in Teofilpol, as was indirectly shown in iconographic and written sources. Formal diversity is also a feature of church façades, including the two-tower façades in Vilnius, Lviv intra moenia, Trynitopol, Teofilpol (the first church) and Vitebsk, single-tower façades in Brahiłów, Cracow, Krotoszyn, Krzywicze and Rzyszczów as well as the towerless façades in Warsaw, Lutsk, Brest- -on-the-Bug, Lviv extra moenia, Bursztyn, Kamieniec Podolski and Teofilpol (the second church). Only in the Commonwealth, beside complexes with asymmetric layout of the buildings deriving from the Benedictine tradition of claustrum, Trinitarians erected churches and monasteries situated in an axis. The axial composition was planned in Brest-on-the-Bug, Bursztyn, Brahiłów, and presumably, in Lviv extra moenia and Teofilpol. The Brest complex represents quite a unique architectural scheme, in which the temple partially embedded in the front wing of the monastery, had a central or central-longitudinal nave encircled by chapels. In Brahiłów, the monastery built on a ground plan of the letter H closed at the bottom, adjoins the rear elevation of the temple. A similar concept was to be carried out in Teofilpol, as can be presumed from iconographic and written sources. The Bursztyn complex was designed on a ground plan of a Greek cross with a centrally situated chancel topped with a dome. As for the complex extra moenia in Lviv, there are many signs that, originally, the temple was to be enclosed by three wings. Eventually, only two were built on a ground plan of a steel square. The architecture of Polish-Lithuanian Trinitarians escapes unequivocal evaluation. Within the orbit of the order’s influence buildings of traditional form were constructed alongside those featuring outstanding architectural solutions, rarely or never before applied in the Commonwealth. Among the latter, undoubtedly, belong the churches in Vilnius, Trynitopol, Orsha, Lutsk, Brest-on-the-Bug, Teofilpol, Cracow, Krotoszyn and Brahiłów. The church on the Vilnius Antokol, the oldest central temple in the capital of Lithuania, has an octagonal ground plan dating back to the sixteenth century (Sebastiano Serlio’s treatise) and a vertical dome vault, which is partially screened outside by embracing walls, inspired by the “camouflaged” domes of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome, designed by Francesco Borromini. Its façade, flanked by the diagonally situated towers, is a pioneering solution in the Commonwealth. The concept of a central building with a dome and a two-tower façade was earlier used only in the Camaldolese church in Pożajście (Lithuanian: Pažaislis).The central, or central-longitudinal temple in Teofilpol topped with a monumental dome on a tholobate, preceded by a two-plan façade with a narthex projecting over the front of the encompassing towers was the sole, alongside St. Anna parish church in Lubartów, and the most outstanding example in the Commonwealth of reception of Carlo Fontana’s project for Ecclesia Triumphans. The churches in Trinitopol and Orsha have an elongated octagonal nave with the transverse axis accentuated with transept chapels. They were built before other few temples erected on the relevant territory, having a similar interior design, additionally enriched with the chapels situated on the diagonal axes, like in the Trinitarian church in Brest-on-the-Bug. Although the sources of such spatial disposition should be sought in the Habsburgian Baroque, its choice was most certainly dictated by the desire to allude to the generally admired Roman church of Discalced Trinitarians San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. Borromini’s solutions were actually adopted by Francesco Placidi for the façade of the Trinitarian temple in Cracow. Enclosing the middle axis by triangular pillars is the reproduction of the concept applied in Rome’s Santa Maria dei Sette Dolori, while the topping turret, whose front and rear elevations are concave and side elevations convex, resembles „la torre dell’orologio” of Oratory of St. Philip Neri. These Borrominian quotes together with a vivid architectural detail and successful incorporation into the frontage make the Trinitarian façade one of the foremost realizations of the radical Baroque in Poland. In the same group also belongs the church in Krotoszyn distinguished by its central-longitudinal wall-pier nave with sail vault, “two-layer” structure and dynamic single-tower façade with concave-convex side parts. It is regarded as the best exemplification in Poland of the influence of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer – continuator of creative experiments of Guarino Guarini. The façades of Trinitarian churches in Lutsk and Brahiłów attract a viewer’s attention with their composition merging a giant order and small order, in which there are echoes of the scheme created by Andrea Palladio. In the Lutsk church, this scheme has been altered in the spirit of Bernini, like in the Cracow temple of the Congregation of the Mission constructed around the same time. Its central part was shaped following the pattern of a monumental aedicule preceding Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome. The Brahiłów temple is distinguished by adopting the “Palladian” system of architectural decoration for a single- tower façade and by the unprecedented opening of the two lower stories of the tower with arcades. The architectural forms of Trinitarian temples conveying universal meanings are interlaid with the content of sculpted and painted ornaments. They could not be missing representations of the patron of the friars – the Holy Trinity, regarded as the only source, a model and evangelical aim of the service to the enslaved and the poor. In eastern borderlands of the Commonwealth, the Holy Trinity dogma had an additional, ecumenical dimension as a unifying factor for the Catholics, Orthodox and Uniates in the face of danger from Muslim Turkey. The ideological center of the church interiors were copies of the miraculous statue of Jesus of Nazareth, the Ransomed, kept in the Discalced Trinitarians church in Madrid. They were displayed in the main altar exclusively in the Polish-Lithuanian province. Frequently, they were placed in a deep arcade niche resembling a small chapel incorporated into a retabulum and sometimes lit with the light falling through a hidden window (Spanish: „el camarín”), which was a characteristic of the Iberian Baroque. The worship created by Discalced Trinitarians was an emanation of their propagated reverence for the Passion. Moreover, Christ’s bound hands made one think of the order’s redeeming mission, and so did depictions of slaves and the Angel of Redemption, scenes of captive redemption, or the motif of fetters and chains. A significant role in the iconographic program of Trinitarian churches was also played by Marian motifs emphasizing Mary’s relation with the Three-in-One God and Her role in the redemptive mission of Christ. It is worth noticing the miraculous likenesses of Mother of Jesus revered in Trinitarian churches in Tomaszów Lubelski, Mielec, Brest-onthe- Bug and Trynitopol. Diversity of formal solutions characterizing Trinitarian architecture in the St. Joachim province proves the ability of the Spanish order to adjust to new social-cultural conditions and a different constructional tradition without giving up the idea of transplanting new concepts on to the Polish- Lithuanian ground. The outcome is a significant number of buildings distinguished by innovative forms, high artistic class and original iconography.