Skip to content
L'église de l'Annonciation de la Vierge Marie dans l'église de la Sainte-Trinité, photo Аляксей Мацеша, 2015
Licence: CC BY 3.0, Source: Wikimedia Commons, Conditions d\'autorisation
Photo montrant Side portal of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna Side portal of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna
 Soumettre des informations supplémentaires
ID: POL-002042-P

Side portal of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna Side portal of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna

ID: POL-002042-P

Side portal of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna Side portal of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna

The church of the Brigidines, now the Church of the Nuns of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrodna, and the two portals decorating it, which were created in 1642, were founded by Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, Grand Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and his wife Alexandra, née Sobieska. In this way, they commemorated their stepdaughter Gryzelda Sapiega, née Vodinska, Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who died prematurely in 1633.

The early Baroque stone portals of the Hrodna temple, which are of great artistic value, are an example of the use of ornamentation with Mannerist-Nederlandic features. Their early baroque form and the material used - gothic sandstone - may point to a stone workshop from Gdansk. According to art historian Prof. Maria Kałamajska-Saeed, a researcher of the Pobrygidze church, there is also an indication that the author of the portals was Antoni Massener from Vilnius, noted in the source materials on the history of the Grodno temple as a stonemason working on the new floor, but described as a "stonemason of the Holy Family" and known for his artistic work, for example, on the decoration of the Chapel of St Casimir in the Vilnius Cathedral.

The first attempts to save the damaged portals were made in 1995-1997 by Dr Janusz Smaza of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Commissioned by the Centre for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad of the "Polish Community" Association, he carried out work to protect both stone portals. The work included gluing up cracks and flaking and putting protective putty on them. Descriptive, drawing and photographic documentation was produced as part of the work.

The state of preservation of the sandstone side portal, discovered during the conservation work carried out in 2010-2012 by a team composed of Lucyna Piekacz-Omieczyńska and Anna Słowik, also provided indications of a fire or an attempt to start one. For the stone appeared to be burnt (darkening of the stone structure at a depth of 1-6 mm). Stratigraphic examination of the layers indicated that the incident had occurred a long time ago (the portal had still been repainted four times), and although the church had never burnt down, there had been attempts to set it on fire.

The state of preservation of the side portal was described by Lucyna Omieczyńska in the documentation submitted to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as follows: "The side portal (height 450 cm, width 242 cm) flanks the northern entrance to the temple. The courtyard space is separated by the church wall, in which a Mannerist entrance gate is located on the axis.

The pillar shafts are decorated with symmetrical floral ornaments and rosettes. They were flanked on the outside by two griffins - only the upper part is preserved today. Above, a simple beam, in the lower part of which plaques with an inscription were placed: ANNO 1642 (the date of the construction of both portals to the church), while in the upper part there is rich ornamentation in the form of symmetrical stylised plant rhizomes with wine grapes.

The tympanum in the central part has a cabochon, originally decorated with the inscription IHS. On either side of the pediment are decorative pinnacles - cones. The whole is surmounted by an arched cornice, above which there used to be another element, now gone. The original door to the vestibule of the church has also not survived; only the recesses in the back of the right-hand pillar remain of the fittings and studs."

As the conservator notes: "The way the elements of the portal were assembled shows that the individual stone blocks were worked in a carving workshop and brought as semi-finished products to Grodno. Originally, the side portal consisted of 27 Gothic sandstone blocks of different sizes (only 24 of these have survived to this day)".

The conservation work carried out on the side portal in 2010 included cleaning the surface of the stone from layers (dirt, repainting, protective putty from 1996), desalting and strengthening it. Loose elements were glued, and cracks and internal blisters were filled. Defects in the sculptural form were repaired, and the architectural and sculptural form was completely reconstructed within the left pillar, the stylised birds (griffins) and the threshold. Local isolation of the stone from the facade plaster was carried out. The entire structure was hydrophobised, followed by colour unification (necessary due to the burnt stone - mainly in the lower part).

Due to the discovery of new iconographic materials, expanding the knowledge of the sculptural form of the side portal, additional reconstruction works of the object were necessary, carried out with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2012.

The next stage of the works consisted in the restoration (on the basis of archival photographs found) of the following elements: the IHS inscription on the cabochon of the abutment shield and the lower parts flanking the portal - stylised birds along with the plinth part. The reconstructed part was hydrophobised and then colour unified. During the aesthetic restoration, based on archival research and careful observation of the object, the western portal of the church was used as a source of analogy, being, together with the side portal, a joint foundation of Krzysztof Wiesiołowski and his wife Aleksandra of Sobieski in 1642.

Work on the side portal carried out in 2010-2012 at the request of the Heritage Academy Alumni Association, with funding from the Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 'Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad'.

This is not the only conservation project related to the Prigardian temple and carried out with funds from the Polish state. In 1996, a team led by Izabela Malczewska of the Monuments Conservation Workshop in Warsaw carried out conservation work on twelve paintings from the Pobrygidze church (funds were provided by the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad). The restored paintings were placed in the nave and on the walls of the former monastery choir.

With funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the restoration of the painting 'Mourning' was carried out in 2008-2009 by restorers Paweł Sadlej from Warsaw and Włodzimierz Kisły from Grodno).

In 2016. Podlaskie Museum in Bialystok was granted funds from the Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 'Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad' to carry out conservation of historical documents from the collection of the Archives of the Brigidine Monastery in Grodno located in the Grodno State Historical and Archaeological Museum. Thanks to funding from the Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, since 2016 the Diocese of Elk has been carrying out a project for the restoration of a historic wooden lamus building - a baroque arcaded granary preserved in the former garden of the Brigidine Monastery. The building, dating from 1762, is now owned by the diocese of Grodno. It is intended to house the diocesan museum.

The state of historical research on the former Brigidine Church and Monastery, now the Rectoral Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been completed. The state of historical research on the former church and monastery of the Brigidines, now the rectoral church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Family of Nazareth), is summarised in the monograph by Prof. Maria Kalamajska-Saeed published in the publication 'Churches and Monasteries of Grodno (1)', Part IV, T.1 of the 'Materials for the History of Sacral Art in the Eastern Lands of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth' (Krakow 2012).

Time of origin:
1633-1642
Data założenia karty:
15.07.2024
Data ostatniej aktualizacji:
15.07.2024
Author:
Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak
voir plus Texte traduit automatiquement

Projets connexes

1
The website uses cookies. By using the website you agree to the use of cookies.   See more