Akmenynės bažnyčia: šaltinių ir ikonografijos tyrimai

Abstract

Akmenynė, now a village in the Šalčininkai district, was known at first just as a privately-owned land, and later as an estate called Kamionka, a Polish name deriving from the name of the river Kamena. Based on iconographic materials and other relevant documents kept in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the present article aims to discuss the architecture of the wooden church built in 1928–1929 and its interior equipment, as well as a wooden manor that had existed in the 17th century – the early 19th century and a wooden church that had stood on its estate. In the mid-17th century, the Akmenynė estate consisted of a wooden house and farm buildings. In the 18th century, the walls of the main room of the representational house were upholstered with fabric and paper and decorated with paintings. In the second half of the 17th century, there had already been built the wooden church equipped with liturgical vessels and other attributes. It had two paintings depicting the Holy Virgin Mary and St. Bishop Stanislaus, with three more pictures, those of the Virgin Mary, Our Lord Jesus, and St. Antony of Padua. One of the authors (or the only author) of the Project of the present Church of St. Terese of the Holy Infant Jesus could have been the manager and work supervisor of the construction on this church, Anton Filipowicz-Dubowik. Most of its equipment and inventory was made and acquired in the end of the third decade and in the fourth decade of the 20th century. The painting of St. Terese of the Holy Infant Jesus is different in composition from other pictures, which were painted based on the first portrait images of the saint. Such items as the holy water font created by the stonecutter J. Szemetowicz based on a drawing by an unknown artist and the sacristy cabinet acquired by the efforts of the painter Piotr Żyngiel testify to the collaboration between the parish priest of the Akmenynė church and painters who studied at the Faculty of Art of the Vilnius Stephen Batory University. Most of the liturgical vessels were produced by Michael Newiadomski’s Vilnius workshop of liturgical supplies, and one of the reliquaries, by the Charewicz factory of liturgical vessels. It may be assumed that an unknown author who created the linocut The Stations of the Cross, as well as craftsmen of a few Vilnius workshops who produced liturgical vessels and other supplies could have used projects and drawings of Gracian Achrem-Achremowicz. Keywords: Akmenynė church on the manor estate in the 17th – early 19th century; Church of St. Terese of the Holy Infant Jesus in the early 20th century; architecture; inventory; creators.