Pažaislis Monastery

The Monastery Pažaislis ( Lithuanian: Pažaislio vienuolynas, Polish: Klasztor Pożajściu w ) is a well-founded in the 17th century Camaldolese monastery in Lithuania. Owes its fame, it is primarily the Church, one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in Lithuania. It lies on the south-eastern outskirts of Kaunas, the pent-up to Kaunas Sea Memel.

Genesis

The construction of the Virgin Mary Visitation Church ( lit. SVC. Mergeles Marijos Apsilankymo Baznycia ) goes back to the desire of the then Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac ( lit. Kristupas Zygmantas Pacas ) to leave a magnificent legacy. He took the Camaldolese, with whom he had come while studying in Perugia in touch, to Lithuania in 1664 and donated them a monastery with a magnificent church that was to be his final resting place. Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac was thus in competition with his cousin Michał Kazimierz Pac ( lit. Mykolas Kazimieras Pacas ), who had at the same time build the Peter and Paul 's Church in Vilnius. Pac did not live to complete, he died 1684th He is buried according to his will, with his wife Claire de Mailly- Lascaris in the crypt of the church. Like his cousin was also K.Z. Pac at the church entrance install a plaque on his person, with the text The one you're reading this board, know, here is a sinner ). The original name of the monastery was because even Mons Pacis ( Mountain of Peace, but also allusion to the name Pac ).

Architecture

Work on the monastery and to the Virgin Mary Visitation Church ( lit. SVC. Mergeles Marijos Apsilankymo Baznycia ) began in November 1667 ( six months before the Peter and Paul's Church in Vilnius). The church was completed by 1676; the decorations inside the church lasted until 1712. The builders were the Italians Giovanni Battista Frediani and after 1674 the brothers Pietro and Carlo Puttini.

The church is one of the most beautiful baroque buildings in Lithuania. You impressed by the strict symmetry of the central building. Four chapels of the chancel and the input encircle the unusual, since hexagonal building with the mighty dome. The central building shares the sprawling monastery complex in the western part of a public and a private eastern part, which is the hermit monks reserved.

From the west the concave façade achieves an impression of lightness above the portal in conjunction with the slender, towering lateral towers. The facade is divided horizontally by a powerful cornice and a stone balustrade. The decoration of the façade and the towers were designed by the German architect Michael Scheidt wool. Designed by him figure group " Visitation " over the balustrade is gone but lost in 1870.

The clear church interiors are amazingly colored frescoes by Michelangelo Palloni (1678-1685), the walls and ledges of red and black marble and the huge dome ( 54m high) with the fresco Coronation of Mary in Heaven ( by Giuseppe Rossi, 1692 ). The frescoes are framed by stucco by Giovanni Merli ( 1674-1676 ). Follow two subject areas: Stations of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the life of Saint Romuald ( founder of the Camaldolese Order) and Benedict (life after his monastic rule the Camaldolese ). A painting in the chapel to the right of the altar shows the Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, with the Pac distantly related mentioned. The chapels on the left and right of the entrance show the namesake of the founder, St. Christopher, and St. Francis de Sales, a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, canonized in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII.

1791/92 the church received an extension in the classical style (architect Rossi) at the rear ( east ) wing monastery.

The church has a well-respected as a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary with her child. It was a gift from Pope Alexander VII to Krzysztof Pacas in 1661 and already then known as miraculous. With the foundation of the image Pacas wanted to increase the attraction of his church. It was also held by the Orthodox monks (see below) in honor and taken from them during the First World War with Russia. Only in 1928 it was returned to the monastery. After a 50-year exile in the Kaunas Cathedral, it is since 2000 to visit again in the St. Mary's Visitation Church. Every year on 2 July ( Feast of the Visitation ), a solemn procession with the image of Mary instead.

The response of the church to the cloister and sacristy are decorated with elaborate ceiling paintings depicting the life of St. Bruno, the first missionary of the Lithuanians.

History of the Monastery

1664 established a foundation Pac ' the arrival of the Camaldolese in Lithuania. It was next to the 1667 founded by King John II Casimir monastery in Wigry (now Poland, then Grand Duchy of Lithuania ) is one of two monasteries that the Camaldolese in Poland - Lithuania. The Camaldolese are an Order with a vow of silence, separate cells for the monks in the monastery were accordingly tract of Pažaislis built. Of the originally planned 24 to 1720 cells, however, were only 13 built. A high wall separates the actual monastery tract from the rest of the plant.

After the Polish-Lithuanian uprising of 1831 against Russian supremacy, Tsar Nicholas I close the monastery and handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church. This valuable archive and numerous works of art was lost. The church was rebuilt in the interior, the altar and the side altars and removed many frescoes ( as well as the dome fresco ) painted over. 1842, the Orthodox Uspenije Monastery (Eng. Ascension Monastery ) was established. Despite the activity of the monks the monastery cells fell in ruins, only three have survived until today.

Already in 1812 Napoleon's troops had plundered the monastery and in the First World War, it was again severely affected when the Germans einrichteten a hospital here. 1920, sister Marija Kaupaitė with four of her nuns from the Order of the Sisters of St. Casimir from Chicago to Pažaislis and revived the Catholic monastic tradition. After the takeover by the Communists in 1948, the Order was expelled and the monastery different purposes passed (archive, nursing home, mental hospital, summer camp ). The construction of the Kaunas Reservoir in 1959 from the monastery on the Neman River loop a monastery on the lake shore, the cemetery was swallowed by water. 1967 Finally, the monastery was transferred to the custody of the State MKČiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas and some renovations done. In 1992 it was returned to the Sisters Order, which ever since taking care of the monastery.