Heritage Discovered: the Church in Landwarów

By the end of this week the Church Heritage Museum in Vilnius will be presenting an exhibition: “Let us discover our heritage: a church in Landwarów and its interior decorations in 1905-1943.” The originators of the exhibition states that not only does it present the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, unknown beyond the parish borders, to a wider audience, but also illustrates relations between Poland and Lithuania at the beginning of the XX century.

“The church in Landwarów is a valuable architectural monument of the XX century, almost unknown outside the parish. Its historical and artistic importance has not been even estimated by experts—art and architectural historians or painting inspectors”—asserts the curator of the exhibition, dr Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.

The Church Heritage Museum, which gathers, e.g., unused liturgical objects, received from  the church in Landwarów precious collection of liturgical fabrics, several metallic products and documents holding a status of masterpiece: architectural and ornamentation design.

During the studies on the collection dr Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, dr Dalia Vasiliūnienė and Rita Pauliukevičiūtė discovered new facts enabling them to reconstruct the history of church, the activity of its founder—count Władysław Tyszkiewicz, and some of its parishioners. The exhibition catalogue contains the studies’ results.

“Exhibits, as well as the information we managed to receive thanks to them, appealed for making them public, also because they encourage people to think again about the coexistence of Poles and Lithuanians, present the examples of fruitful cooperation of those two nations”—explains the curator of the exhibition, dr Giedrė Jankevičiūtė.

In this regard—as stated by the organizers—the circumstances of  the ornaments creation in the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church appear to be interesting. The interior of the temple was embellished in 1942-1943, during the World War II, thanks to close collaboration of a parish rector and Polish artists under the direction of a painter Jerzy Hoppen with the construction company Statyba. Afterwards, the same group of Polish painters in collaboration with Lithuanian builders ornamented the church in Lithuanian village Perłoja in Varėna district municipality; in the church decorations one can find various references to Lithuanian patriotism.

The Church Heritage Museum exhibition is composed of expositions handed over by the church in Landwarów. They are complemented with the photographs collection  from the National Museum in Warsaw Library and the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The exhibition will be opened up until March 3. On March 2, Saturday, dr Giedrė Jankevičiūtė will guide people round the exhibition.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/kosciol-w-landwarowie-odkryte-dziedzictwo

Tłumaczenie Hanna Hołub w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Hanna Hołub the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.