The Roman Catholic Church of St Michael the Archangel in Porozovo (Belarus: Поразава) was built between 1820 and 1828.

History

The first wooden church was built in 1460 by Jan Rymwid, and dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Peter and Paul the Apostles, and St. Adalbert and St. George the Martyrs. There is no information about its appearance, but it was probably wooden, like the other one described in 1633, with the chapel of the Virgin Mary adjoining from the south, newly built at that time at the expense of Elżbieta Massalska. It is said to have had three altars: the main one of Zofia Hulikowa's foundation, consecrated in 1618, with a painting of the 'Coronation of Mary', and two side altars - the old one and a newly built one - both with paintings of the Virgin Mary. This church survived until 1668, when it was described as old. Probably still in the same year or shortly afterwards, a new one was completed, about which Bishop Mikolaj Slupski wrote in 1675 that it was "built at great cost and of magnificent structure by Fr Benedict Zuchorski, Custos of Vilnius".

The next church, erected in 1715 by Jan Jankowski, dean of Rozanski, and Kazimierz Krupowicz, parson of Porozovo, was consecrated in 1732 by Bishop Jozef Michal Karp under the invocation of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. It was wooden, 30 m long, with two towers in the façade and a tin whitewashed bell turret. Inside there were three two-storey, woodcarved altars, silver-plated and gilded. The main altar with sculptures of St Peter and St Paul, in the central field was the painting "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" with a gilded inscription: "Ave Maria gratia plena", supported by silver-plated sculptures of angels.

The church burned down in 1767 during the town fire. In 1769, thanks to the efforts of parish priest Jerzy Cywiński and Antoni Kazimierz Tyszkiewicz, general of the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and with the help of parishioners, a fourth wooden church was erected on this site, which received the invocation of Sts Peter and Paul the Apostles. It was of a "lofty structure", with a tower topped by a helmet with a cross, covered with shingles, on a stone foundation, with two brick crypts, which were the burial place of the Zawiš family, the governors of Trakai. According to a description from 1784, the lower tier of the façade had figures of St Peter and St Paul on pedestals, and the tower was painted red and green. The main altar was of carpentry work, "optically" painted, two-storeyed, framed by gates on which stood contoured figures of St. Peter and St. Paul cut from boards, with an image of the Holy Trinity in the main field and Divine Providence assisted by angels with tribulators in the second storey.

The church burned down on 12 May 1797 from a lightning strike. In its place, a wooden chapel donated by Wincenty Tyszkiewicz, Lithuanian registrar, was erected, to which a shed with a vestry was added at the expense of parson Tadeusz Adamowicz. The chapel almost equalled the size of the former church, and two crypts still existed under the brick floor preserved from the burnt church.

On 23 June 1819, Fr Michal Grabowiecki took over the administration of the Porozov parish, and was obliged to build a new church. In the same year, he brought in the architect Marcin Ciunkiewicz to prepare a specification of materials "for the erection of a Porozov church of the same size and structure as the parish church of Roch", and in 1820 concluded a contract with him for the construction, providing a drawing he had drawn up. The bulk of the costs were borne by the parish priest and the local landowners Ksawery and Tomasz Zawisz. On 29 September 1828, Ignacy Tarwid, dean of Volkovysk, consecrated the church under the new name. St. Michael the Archangel. At that time, the main altar contained a sculpture of "Christ Crucified" (according to the inspector, "of wretched and clumsy workmanship"), and the two side altars in the lower tiers contained paintings: of St. Michael the Archangel. Tekla (north altar) and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (south altar), and the upper altars of the Virgin Mary, one of which was in a silver dress (probably a friar's). After the suppression of the neighbouring monasteries in 1832, the Porozov church was enriched with valuable furnishings brought, among others, from the Lateran Canons' church in Krzemienica and the Franciscan church in Lopienica.

In 1924, the church was described by the inspector as 'common, made of stone, without any style, generally in good condition', but with a note that it did not meet the needs of a large parish of six thousand people. It required minor repairs to the exterior and restoration of the interior.

Architecture

The church is located in the northern part of the eastern frontage of the former market square, on an extensive rectangular plot of land surrounded by a wall with a gate-bell. It is oriented, built of stone with wide joints of decorative mortar with small quartz stones, the divisions and frames of the openings are plastered and whitewashed. Rectangular in plan, four-bay with a new rectangular annex (vestibule of the northern sacristy). The interior is covered with a planked ceiling. The chancel is separated by a low sacristy, reaching half the height of the nave. The façades are framed at the corners and divided by Tuscan pilasters on plinths, topped by a beam with a plain frieze, which is only in the façade filled with triglyphs and metopes. The façade is slightly lower than the gable wall of the nave, flat, tri-axial, in the form of a blind four-pillared portico with a triangular plastered pediment, in the tympanum a circular window in a moulded band, beneath which is an almost no longer visible red inscription: "GOD OUR REFUGE". In the right bay, at the level of the pilasters' plinth, a prominent darker-coloured stone with an engraved inscription: "1828 | X.W.S.". Four-axis side elevations. Roof covered with sheet metal, gabled, on the ridge above the pesbiterium a small octagonal turret for a bell topped with a cross.

Artistic issues

In the initial design, the church was to be built on the model of the church in Rosi. It is not clear why this option was abandoned - it is possible that the architect hired for the construction would not have been able to cope with such a structure, so it was decided to put up a church with a much simpler body. It seems more likely, however, that insufficient funds were available - for this reason, the construction of the existing church with its uncomplicated form was delayed (it was decided to lower the walls already during the works) and the consecration did not take place until 1828.

The basic building material of the Porozov church - used according to the recommendations of parish priest Grabowiecki - is field stones and pieces of quartz embedded in mortar. The irregular texture of the façade, juxtaposed with the smooth white plaster of the details - pilasters, window and door frames - was characteristic of Vilnius church architecture from the early 19th century. This simple yet striking solution is found here very often, for example in the churches of Hoża, Rukojnie and Zoludek. It is also used in so-called "small architecture" - bell towers were built in a similar way, e.g. in Strubnica or Gieranony.

Marcin Ciunkiewicz, employed by parish priest Grabowiecki, is not mentioned in the literature and does not appear in available dictionaries of architects. He may have been related to Jan Aleksander Ciunkiewicz (1799-1847), a builder of the Kujawy and then Radom regions, who in 1829 rebuilt an old pavilion and designed a new one to house an alumnus at the seminary in Włocławek. The architect employed in Porozovo was not outstanding. The mass of the church he built is uncomplicated and did not require great creative ingenuity from the builder, although this may have been the effect intended by the parish priest, and Ciunkiewicz was meticulous in carrying out the commission. Similarly, the belfry-gate in front of the façade, for the construction of which the church builder was again employed, is an example of a simple building whose 'homeliness' is enhanced by unevenly laid plaster and thick whitewash.