
SACRED SPACE ON THE TRIANGULAR PLAN
The Holy Trinity Uniate church in Greater Svorotva, Belarus
J. KRZYSZTOF LENARTOWICZ
Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland
Abstract:The subject of this article concerns two Uniate churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity in the village of Greater Svorotva near Baranovicze (Bielarus), chronologically following each other, both established on an equilateral triangle plan. These churches belong to a group of five sacred buildings of such shape known to have existed in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In this paper an attempt is made to interpret the basis for the emergence of such an architectural spatial concept against the backdrop of other designs and constructions in Europe between the 11th and the 20th centuries. The proposition of the paper is that a direct relation held between the spatial shape of the church, its dedication and the cultural and political situation in the region. These churches inspire further studies of the use of the equilateral triangle plan in architecture, particularly for sacred buildings. In the future such studies should result in a more complete review and perhaps a full catalogue of buildings established on such a plan.
The centralized space form with a plan characterized by more than one symmetry axes (circle has an infinite number of symmetry axes, octagon – 16, hexagon – 6, square – 4, equilateral triangle – 3) was suited particularly well to symbolic functions related to a cult or a commemoration of a person or an event. This article is limited to considerations of sacred space. The central form alone makes the space monumental, independently of its scale. An excellent example of such an impression made by a centralized space form is the Tempietto di San Pietro in Montorio church in Rome by Bramante, established on a circular plan and rather small in dimensions.
The use of a centralized plan is characteristic to a number of types of temples built as tombs of persons considered holy. A good example of it is the numerous so-called "marabouts" – most frequently on a square plan – built in Arab countries. Many buildings of central space forms belong to the leading architectural works of their epochs. Among them are: unrivalled Roman Pantheon in Rome (118–126 AD), where centrality is based not only on the circular plan but also on the sphere inscribed in the interior; early Christian tombs (e.g. those of Theodoricus the Great of 6th century or of Gallia Placidia), the San Nazaro e Celso Church in Ravenna of the 5th century; the octagonal (such a polygon being a symbol of the Resurrection) St. Vitalis' church in Ravenna of 6th century; the churches built according to the pattern of the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem (e.g. the dodecagonal Sta. Vera Cruz church in Segovia of 12th –13th centuries) ; Gothic churches with central plans, e.g. quasi-dodecagonal Liebfrauenkirche in Trier of 12th century 1) ; modern churches, e.g. St Peter's Basilica in Rome – erected over the tomb of the Apostle – in its original Renaissance form given to it by its first designers, Bramante and Michelangelo, starting 1506. Also baptisteries often have a central space form (e.g. the octagonal Baptistery in Florence of 12th century). The central plan appeared in Baroque too (e.g. the octagonal San Lorenzo church in Turin by Guarino Guarini, 1668). The unbuilt neoclassical Newton's Cenotaph by Étienne-Louis Boulée (end of 18th c.) also should be mentioned here. Symbolic memorial of the great scientist was to be in the form of an enormous, 150 m in diameter, hollowed sphere. The central point of the sphere is accessible, and allows a perception of this centrality. Yet it was the Easatern churches that fancied the central plan most and demonstrated the longest lasting attachment to it.
An analysis of small wooden Orthodox churches in the territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth shows that, among others, central plans such as: the octagonal plan, the octagonal plan appended with a cross of four squared arms, or the Greek cross plan containing five squares were used. It is also the case with stone Orthodox churches – many of those were built similarly on the central plan 2).
Also Jewish synagogues in the former Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, both wooden and masonry ones, represented centralized settings: a
square or a nine-polar plan 3).
Characteristic to the Polish lands was a
synagogue design in which the bimah occupied the central position in the inner
space. The pillars isolating the bimah sometimes served as construction elements
for the ceiling and the roof, what additionally underlined the centralized
composition.
As mentioned above, equilateral triangle belongs to central forms as it has three symmetry axes. It is more theoretically so since it was used extremely rarely. This rarity resulted mainly from practical reasons. The walls converging at the 60° angle pose a serious problem in the interior as to how to use the space converging to none, while in the exterior they cause difficulties in building up the cusp with the material. The two problems are particularly acute for the buildings of restricted size. The Middle Ages offered only two examples of such triangular buildings: one early Medieval and another late Medieval. Two churches in question rationalized their triangular plans for functionality in two different ways.
The oldest such church found is the church in Planès (Roussillon,
France), built of freestone in the 12th
or the early 13th century, dome-like topped, on an equilateral
triangle plan, the sides of which being much flattened arcs. Three large
absidioles serve as expansions to the inner space and improve the utilization of
the nave. The basis for this design is certainly an equilateral triangle. The
church is oriented, although not with a vertex of the triangle but with one of
the absidioles pointing east. Once the author made such a design decision, the
entrance had to be placed in one of the vertices of the triangle and his
difficulty in solving thus created problem is still quite striking.



The unique example from the Gothic period is the hospital church
(1422–1497), dedicated to the Holy Spirit, of the hospice in Bruck an der Mur,
Germany, which from the 18th century was used as living quarters.
Also here, from the very beginning its architects attempted to improve the
usefulness of the inner space: the triangle the plan's geometry had been based
upon was altered to an irregular hexagon by flattening its vertices at the 1/6th
of the wall length.

The no longer existing, likely a stellar vault over the central space was set on a regular hexagon plan. Götz claims that "the models for such a specific layout cannot be found; therefore it must be regarded as a late and isolated 15th century solution that seems to have anticipated the corresponding forms of the Baroque." 6)
In the modern times several architects were interested in the triangular plan, but the majority of their designs never left the paper, most probably because the investors concluded that such a plan would be excessively troublesome. If despite this, triangular designs were indeed carried out, it was certainly for the symbolic significance of the triangle. Complexes dedicated to the Holy Trinity probably are the only buildings set on such a plan that had not been appended with additional functional elements blurring the triangularity of the original plan.
In the portfolio of the Elizabethan architect John Thorpe, which subsequently came into Sir John Soane's possession, two architectural drawings of castle buildings can be found. They depict the Longford Castle (Wiltshire), in which a Holy Trinity diagram was sketched in the centre of the triangular courtyard. This castle was built in 1591. Among comprehensive designs of this portfolio there is also a drawing of a building on a triangular plan with an octagonal inner court (the latter spatially reminding the subsequent Pozzo's plan) as well as a drawing of another building which was set on a triangular plan 7).
The Triangular Lodge of Thomas Tresham in Rushton (Northamptonshire)
(1593–1597) constitutes a sacred building full of encoded meanings,
established on an impeccably equilateral triangle plan. Its author, who built it
for himself, took no liberty in compromising in any way the form for the
functionality 8).

In Baroque the intentional complexity went even further.
"Illusions, meant to trick the observer's impression of the shape of the architecture, were common. This was architecture for emotion, for artistic expression. As such it shied away from the geometry and philosophy of the past, especially that of the Renaissance. Floor plans of Baroque churches often incorporated two new shapes, rarely used before: the triangle and the oval. (…) Symbolically, the triangle represents the Holy Trinity, but aesthetically represents "yet only a principle of creation, forming the passage between the transcendent and manifest realms..." Despite this, it had little role to play in a geometry based on squares and circles. Historically, architects have avoided triangle-shaped rooms, because the tight angles are awkward and un-humanist. In a period marked by avoidance of human dimension, however, the triangle became fair game." 9).
Hence, the triangular shape of little practical value could meet its realization just when caprice outweighed common sense, and artificiality was the desired and the defining attribute of art. This notwithstanding one can point at no church whose plan would be a pure equilateral triangle. All known designs and realizations either appended the starting triangle by its redoubling or by adding apses or other forms to it, or transformed it into a hexagon by cutting off the vertices. All that, however, while easing the functional adversities, have violated the firmness of the form.
The plan of the San Ivo della Sapienza church in Rome designed
by Francesco Borromini consists of two equilateral triangles superimposed one on
the other so that they produce a six arm star (the symbol of Wisdom) with a
hexagon inside. In the view of the church's dome, and especially in its
projection at the cornice level, a motif of an equilateral triangle with its
vertices cut off by concave lines can clearly be seen 10). .
In essence, at the
floor level this idea is identical to that realized in Planès, i.e. of an
equilateral triangle expanded with absidioles into some sort of hexagon.

Another church by Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in
Rome (1637–1641), has a remarkable plan based upon two contiguous equilateral
triangles to form a lozenge within which two circles are inscribed joint by arcs
so as to create an oval. At the level of the cornice of the dome this plan
becomes oval, and the starting triangles no longer play a clear role. The
originality of this church made a great impression on the contemporaries. The
Procurator General of the Order of the Discalced Trinitarians boasted that
architects all over Europe were requesting copies of the church's plan, and that
"in the opinion of everybody nothing similar with regard to artistic merit,
caprice, excellence, and singularity could be found anywhere in the world"
11).
One should note here that the Trinitarian order was the investor in this
church.

In his book Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum (Rome,
1700), Andrea Pozzo included a design of a thirty-person monastery building
established on an equilateral triangle plan with a hexagonal church in its
centre. The vertices of the triangle were flattened with concave arcs of large
radii 12).

Georg Dientzenhofer (1643-1689) was the architect of the Holy Trinity
pilgrimage church, called the "Kappel," located on the Glasberg
Mountain, 628 m., near Waldsassen, Germany. Dientzenhofer spectacularly succeeded in
translating the idea of the Holy Trinity's unity into the architecture. The
cornerstone for this church was laid in 1685. In every of its elements the
building is "dominated" by the number of three. However, also here
there are three conchs added around the original triangle. Each of these conchs
has three niches, each with an altar. At the junctions of the walls and the
conchs, three round, lofty towers with onion-shaped domes rise over the steep
tent-roof with three lanterns. The entire complex is surrounded by a three-lane
ambulatory.


Somewhat subsequent to that church is the pilgrimage church also
dedicated to the Holy Trinity in Stadl-Paura in Upper Austria, (1714–1724),
designed by J. M. Prunner. It is built on a triangular plan too, also has three
towers, three altars and three portals. However, the triangle has been
transformed into a highly complex form and visually the original triangle can be
traced only on paper.

The hospital St. Clement church of the Knights Hospitallers in Münster, Germany, by Johann C. Schlaun turned out rather a rotunda, and the quasi-triangular outline seen from the outside is quite complicated (similarly to Stadl-Paura's). Such a shape resulted from the layout of the walls of the church and the hospital buildings.
In Moravia, John-Blaise Santini-Aichel built the Sta. Anna in
Three Persons chapel in Penenske Břežany near Prague (1705–1707) set on a
plan derived from an equilateral triangle with slightly concave sides and
cut-off vertices.


This architect was also the author of a turret (1725)
in Nadryby, set on a spherical triangle plan to which a small chapel was later
added, as well as the author of a chapel in Ostružno (1720) dedicated to the
Holy Trinity.


Also another church in Andelska Hora n. Karlove Vary by an unknown architect has been established on a triangular plan.
The chapel constituting the west-end of the palace in Annency, France, (18th century) has an approximately triangular plan, arising from the shape of the small island on which the palace is located. Consequently, this plan was the result more of the site's topography than of a purposeful design.
In Hungary one can find an 18th century triangular church in the town of Aba, west of Budapest.
In Poland there is a Baroque church
in Stróża n. Kraśnik, established on an equilateral triangle plan, dedicated
to the Holy Trinity. Elaboration of the corners in its plan is
remarkable. An arch of relatively small radius was introduced without deforming
the "trangularity" of the church.



Also, some Calvary chapels use this shape. The House of Annas in
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (1609–1617) designed by Paul Baudarth turns the viewer's
attention by the deformation of the initial triangle, the corners of which are
cut off and by the pilasters which are set on the part of the thus created wall.


The Calvary complex of Góra Św. Anny [Sta. Anna Mountain], subsequent by
one century, imitates to a great extent the solutions from Kalwaria Zebrzydowska.
The Palace of Annas has its corners cut off in a similar way. Flat pilasters
mark here not the centres but the turns of the walls.


Buildings established on a triangle or trefoil symmetry are
quite rare. Among them are: the three-sided Sepulchral Church by Sir John Soane
(late 18th century). The open Flagellation Chapel of the
Stations of the Cross on the Calvary paths in the village of Wiele (1923) is a
20th century example.

The Finnish church in the city centre
of Hyvinkaa, north of Helsinki, by Aarno Ruusuvuori (1961), has a rhomboid plan;
however since the church occupies only half of plan's area, it was actually
established on a triangular plan. Its vertical cross-section is also triangular
13).
From the 16th to the 18th centuries the eastern borderland of the multiethnic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a melting pot of nationalities and hence of genes too, was the region where experiments were done in various fields. In there, a lot was possible. Different whims of the owners of huge estates led to original ideas and their realizations, also in architecture, some of which have now been forgotten.
The churches of the Eastern denominations built in the 17th
and the 18th centuries in the vast territory of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania were predominantly Uniate or Greek Catholic churches. Some earlier
Eastern Orthodox churches were converted into Uniate churches too. In the newly
built church buildings of that time attempts to merge forms characteristic to
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox temples can clearly be discerned. Such
attempts can be traced mainly inside the churches, where original solutions to
the choirs hanging over the naves were applied 14).
Roman Catholic and Uniate churches that were erected on
equilateral triangle plans amount to but a small group. Yet these constitute the
basic topic of this paper. Except for two Uniate churches built subsequently to
each other in Greater Svorotva, there are no indications of any mutual influence
between such church buildings. The list of these churches follows in
chronological order.
15) ;

Poniewieżyk (Panvieżiukas), Samogitia, Lithuania,
Church of the Crucified Jesus, 1747.
Photo: J.K. Lenartowicz, 2005.


The now non-existent Uniate parish church (since 1840 Russian Orthodox) in Biesiady (the former Vilia district, Brzesc diocese, Minsk province) was erected around 1685. Its dedication remains unknown. In 1804 Alexander Strzelbnicki was its collator and Jerzy [George] Werycha its parish priest 16). The church was described as:
"A building of an unusual architecture, in the shape of a triangle with its angles cut-off, thus forming an irregular hexagon. (…) In close vicinity of the hill on which the church is built, the Udra River flows, an Ilia River's tributary." 17)
In 1992, S.A. Sergachev closely analyzed the setting of the church outlined here. He tried to establish what precisely the "irregularity" of the nave's hexagon, certainly inscribed into the equilateral triangle of the outer walls, meant:
"From the triangle of the outside walls the vertices were cut off and additional rooms were located therein. The plan of the nave in the shape of a hexagon with unequal sides could have been obtained in two ways. First – the supplementary rooms in the corners of the main façade had a smaller area than the sacristy located behind the altar; for good reason then the sacristy was called 'high tower'. The second way could have been such that the vertices at the main façade wall were cut off rather at the angle of 90° than 60° relative to this façade's line. But then the number of grooves [in the walls' beams – JKL] in the corners and at the walls' intersection points would have been increased to three. This seems to favour the first solution." 18)
The original church was built in 1747. It was established on an equilateral triangle plan 19). A description of the church building can be found in the Protocol of a visitation in 1798 20). This description is so detailed that it allows for a precise reconstruction of the outer form and of the interior of the church. We quote it explicitly:
"The church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in the estate of The Most Honourable Niezabitowski, the chamberlain of Novogrodek, wooden, built as a triangle; roof covered with wood shingles, with one larger central dome and three smaller ones in the corners, all topped with iron crosses; in each wall double, hinged doors, one with external lock; inside the church brick floor, the walls and the ceiling fully painted; a balustered choir elevated around the walls; in the corners three sacristies with hinged doors, in one of them a carpentry-work altar with a painting of Our Lady (…); in total six large windows and three smaller ones; in the church's centre an altar carved in wood, on a stone pedestal; on altar's top a wooden gilded crown with angles holding it, also carved in wood. On the first side a painting of the Holy Trinity, on the second that of St. Nicolas, and on the third of Virgin Mary; on each of the two pedestals a pair of candlesticks and one altar towel; on the first a painted ciborium which three small doors with locks, ubi asservatur sanctissimum in a tin can; under a cloth spread a small portable altar with the image of Jesus Christ."
From this Protocol we also learn of the date of the foundation:
"The foundation act of this church made by The Honourable Mikolaj [Nicolas] and Agnieszka [Agnes] (nee Domostowska) Owsiany, the Treasury clerks of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on the eighteenth day of June 1747, has been deposited in authenticity in the Metropolitan Archives; as a 1778 extract from the city records of Novogrodek it finds itself in the church".
S.A. Sergachev 21). gives a reconstruction drawing of the
regular hexagonal internal plan of this unusual church.

According to another visitation report of 1804 22), two wooden
Uniate churches did exist: one in Greater Svorotva (collator: Jakub
Niezabitowski; administrator: Gabriel Sawicz) where the parish congregation
included 407 members, and another in Smaller Svorotva (collator: Stefan Kuńcewicz;
parish priest: Maciej Tomaszewski) with 195 parishioners. However, the spatial
form of the latter church is unknown.
Between 1804 and 1823 the wooden Uniate church in Greater Svorotva was probably destroyed and it became necessary to build a new one. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego ("The Geographical Dictionary of the Polish Kingdom") brings the following information:
"Two villages (Greater and Smaller S.) upon the Svorotva River, the Molczadka's tributary, Novogrodek district, Poczepowo county, RC parish of Novogrodek. The Holy Trinity parish church, built of stone, 1823, funded by the Niezabitowskis, has about two wloks of land [cca. 34 hectars – JKL], up to 1,000 inhabitants, a parish school since 1886." 23).
Despite the Eastern Orthodox rite officially in effect (since
the second half of the 18th century in the lands of the Russian
Partition of Poland, the Uniate rite was being consistently and ruthlessly
abolished), both the Svorotva church's dedication and shape were retained,
probably for the local and perhaps family traditions. However, the new church's
form was significantly and creatively enriched. The work of an unknown architect
reflects well on his perfection in the trade.

"… made of stone, duplicating the plan, entrance system, and composition of the preceding wooden church. However, the organization of the inner space has changed; the altar and the choir have been placed in their traditional places. (…) The triangularity of the original plan of the wooden church expressed not only the particular symbolism of the religion, but also the builders' striving that, while preserving the tradition, they would create an architecture not very similar to that of Roman Catholic churches. Such dissimilarity was required by the official civic and the church authorities, particularly after the Uniate Synod of Zamość in 1720." 24)
This description should be amended. Important for the structural
reasons the following components of the building were made of brick and
plastered: corners, columns in the vertices, window and door openings' surrounds,
outside niches in the wall of the main entrance, a niche for the liturgical
equipment, and sockets of the choir's wooden gallery.

The corners were rusticated with plaster. The material filling the remaining volume of the walls is medium-sized undressed erratic granite
rock blocks bonded with mortar. For the reasons of strengthening and decoration
the unavoidable large mortar surfaces amongst the rocks have been garreted, i.e.
stuffed with small crushed pebbles, predominantly black in colour (basalt or
smelter slag?). In this way a peculiar and very vivid wall surface texture has
been produced.

The entrance belfry gate of the church as
well as the ruins of the manor house in Svorotva have been made in the identical manner.


The historical review outlined earlier in this paper points out
that in any building established on a triangular plan the solution to the
problem of vertices is of particular importance. In Svorotva this problem was
solved in a masterly manner. The edges of the vertices were cut blunt at the
walls’ level with a short piece of the wall. In the area of the small
triangles in the very vertices, Tuscany columns of classical proportions and
entasis were set up. The entablature however forms a square slab set diagonally.

An opening at the junction of the western wall and the terrain
implies that there may still be a basement under the nave. However, no
entrance to it was found as of 2002. This matter however requires further
investigation.

It is worthwhile to put and describe this church in the context of the village's landscape. The church axis goes through the belfry gate and then intersects the main road that now has been much widened and thus infringing the church's lot.
Across the road there is a spacious clearing, or a fairground,
on which ruins of a building can still be found. Perhaps a village inn once
stood there.



Towards east, the road lowers somewhat to cross a small
river, and raises again climbing a hill. Below the summit of this hill, on its
southern slope, there still are ruins of a palace. This part of the manor estate
is connected with the church with an exquisite oak-tree alley, parallel to today's
asphalt road.
As seen from the concise review in the opening sections of this paper, the equilateral triangular shape was being used as a building plan not so much for its practical utilization, which indeed it did hamper, but for the appeal of its form and, sometimes, for its symbolic meaning. For such a shape encodes the threefold equality. Therefore it can be used to visualize the Holy Trinity in sacred buildings, such as a church or a Trinitarian (or other) monastery. The equilateral triangle also resembles the trowel, i.e. the basic mason's tool. Therefore, it could be used to connote a Freemasonry organization.
A question however remains about the source that would have given rise
to such an idea – unusual in its simplicity – in a remote Lithuanian village.
Was it a result of thorough studies of architectural manuals or a product of
wild fantasy? The two consecutively built churches in Greater Svorotva were
dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In Lithuania of the 18th and the 19th
centuries it could above all mean an attempt in the search for identity.
Seeking to substantiate the application of a triangular plan in its religiously symbolic meaning may prove most convincing. Clearly, the factor that once played the decisive role in Svorotva was similar to that in Rushton, i.e. the notion of the Holy Trinity.
The crowning work of the Roman Catholic Council that debated in the years 1431–1445 in several cities such as Basle, Ferrara, Florence, and Rome, commonly known as the Council of Florence (1439–1442), was the renewal of the union of several Eastern Churches with the Roman Catholic Holy See. Of particular importance for the unions with the Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Syriacs, Chaldeans, and Maronites of Cyprus was to define the teaching about the Holy Trinity 25). According to Fr. B. Huculak 26), the view that the dispute about the dogma on the descent of the Holy Spirit was the reason for the schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches is unfounded. It appears, however, that the analysis of the meaning of the Holy Trinity in terms of the interdependence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, particularly that of the latter, did indeed occupy the key position among the Council's documents.
The entire discussion concerned the formula of the so-called Filioque 27), i.e. "and the Son" – the theological formulation of the Holy Spirit's descent both from the Father and the Son, consequently "through the Son", and not directly from the Father. This formulation was introduced to the symbols of faith by Western Church but it was rejected by Eastern Orthodox Church as a non-canonical addition. It is considered to have been one of the causes of the Eastern Schism and thus the subject of the ongoing theological dispute. And today it remains one of the topics of the ecumenical dialogue. The Filioque formula appeared first in connection to Arianism, known also as Antitrinitarianism, (4th c. AD) in Augustine's writings who had defined it. The controversy between Constantinople and Rome was caused by the condemnation of Focyan by the latter. Eastern Orthodox Church declined to embrace and introduce the resolutions of the Florence Union. Orthodox Church rejected the Union fully at its Constantinople Council in 1484 and worked out instead its own formula for accepting a Church into its folds that required, among others, renouncing the Filioque. To the contrary, the principles agreed upon at the Florence Council became the foundations of every union with the Roman Catholic Church, including the Union of Brest.
The Synod of Brest-Litovsk (1596) enacted the Act of Union of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It resulted from the political necessity to defend against the claims of Tsarist Russia – after the creation of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate in Moscow – to the command over the entire Orthodox faith, and consequently over the Orthodox Church in Polish and Lithuanian lands. The Brest Union constituted the revival of the earlier Florence Union. The part of Orthodox Church that consequently united with Roman Catholicism was called Uniate Church and its followers the Uniates. Soon, Vilna became the main centre for the pro-Union propaganda 28). Clearly, the Uniate churches in Biesiady and Svorotva were among the worship buildings that served this new situation. Hence their architecture needed to embody the essence of the new religious rite.
One can easily imagine that new Uniate churches cropping up in
the 17th century tended to mark in some way their identity via their
architectural form. On the other hand they frequently referred to the Holy
Trinity's denomination as to an essential related to the specifics of the Uniate
faith that clearly differentiated it from that of Eastern Orthodoxy. The search
for a new form of the building that would combine the specifics of the newly
introduced Greek-Catholic or Uniate liturgy with the stressing of the essential,
as it then seemed, specifics of this rite, i.e. the acceptance of the Filioque,
soon became the driving force behind the emergence of unusually shaped churches
in Lithuania. Perhaps the triangular shape alone was a sufficient determinant of
the new rite and was not exclusively linked to the particular denomination of a
church.
Tritely, with no prove to it, the Uniate church in Greater Svorotwa is sometimes being linked to Freemasonry thought. For example, when writing about Greater Svorotwa, J. Zmigrodzki interjected: "A Uniate church of an unusual form whose plan represents an isosceles triangle (formerly a Masonic Lodge)" 29). Probably referring to this statement, S.A. Sergachev writes:
"One of the scholars wrongly concluded that this church owned its unusual architecture to Freemasonry. The church is a clear example of transferring the forms and the methods of carpentry into stone architecture, a proof that in provincial regions of Belarus, even during the flourishing Classicism architecture, carpentry continued to affect stone-building. This can be explained by continuation of the architectural and building traditions and by broad participation of carpenters in the building process. One should surely note that the effect of stone architecture on the forms and techniques of carpentry was much stronger in this period." [30] 30)
While at this stage of the research it is not possible to prove a Freemasonic provenance of the Greater Svorotva's Uniate church, or at least a Freemasonic usage of it, one cannot fully agree with the above argument. For in the second, stone church the solutions for its vertices certainly did not result from a carpentry tradition.
Freemasonry in Lithuania was a strong movement. The first Freemasonic lodges in Vilno were established in the 1770s. Subsequent to the first Freemasonic workshops named "The Good Shepherd" and "The Ardent Lithuanian", other ones like the "School of Socrates" and "The Slavic Eagle" were founded. According to Małachowski and Łempicki, "The Slavic Eagle" Lodge was established in July 1819 or, according to the report on this lodge for the year 5820, on March 21, 1819 31). Until the abolishment of Freemasonry in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1822 more than ten lodges existed there. Among the Freemasons in Lithuania there were politicians, scientists, military men, and, what may be meaningful to our considerations, clergymen (e. g. Prince N. Puzyna, the Bishop Suffragan of Vilno, and M. Dłuski, a Vilnian Prelate) 32). The Niezabitowskis' affiliation is documented. Stefan Niezabitowski, son of Jakub Niezabitowski, lieutenant of the Polish Army and the Grodno province marshal in 1847, was a member of the "Friends of Mankind" Lodge, and achieved the 4th degree of initiation in 1821.
However, the following fact speaks strongly against the Freemasonic tread to have been present in Greater Svorotva's Uniate church of 1823. This church was certainly a reconstruction of its precursor – the original wooden church of 1747, thence eighty years older. The first church was built when no one yet was talking about Freemasonry in Lithuania. And when the second Uniate church was built, Freemasonic lodges had already been banned in Lithuania since a year before.
One visual argument that speaks for the Freemasonry tread may be
the shape of the plan, which corresponds to the outline of a trowel. Investors,
who were connected to Freemasonry 33),
gladly used symbols depicting masonry
tools. No doubt, in Greater Svorotva the shape of the church was inherited from its
wooden predecessor. However, the fact that in Lithuania some clergy were members
of Freemasonry allows for possible links between Christian and Freemasonic ideas
and for the effects of the two on the architecture. The meticulous elaboration
of architectural detail of this church, in particular the bold solution to the
vertex problem clearly indicates an engagement of a master of the trade.
The equilateral triangle is the obvious extreme of the central plan. It is quite unthinkable that the Renaissance architects, frequently being simultaneously mathematicians, would not have been interested in a triangular form of the plan. The natural context once encouraging consideration of a building on such a plan was the Holy Trinity dedication. And it was indeed the case. The Triangular Lodge in Rushton was built, Pozzo's plans were drawn. But only Rushton has materialized. In other cases the pure triangular design remained only on paper, or was substantially modified. As a result, the expressiveness of the form suffered.
The Holy Trinity, due to the Filioque controversy, is a characteristic that marks the junction of the Western and the Eastern churches. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, upon the unification line of the Brest Union and on the line at which the two churches came into actual contact, the Holy Trinity denomination was the symbol best expressing the specifics of the new Uniate church.
From here it is only one step to architecture. Did the architects mean more the architecture parlante or the biblia pauperum? They were not afraid to reach to the simplest symbolic forms, i.e. the triangle, equilateral of course, that would reproduce best the equality of the Divine Persons. There was no need to derive an analogy from Rushton as the reasons for creating such a form were identical in the two places. No transfer was needed. No mysterious visit of a Lithuanian to England or a Roman Catholic Englishman's eastward expedition to Lithuania was necessary in order to transfer the concept of such a building.
Lithuanian Uniate churches no doubt constitute a distinct spatial and liturgical group, an achievement in uniting the spatial idea with the religious thought of the time. However further studies are required in order to establish whether or not the Uniate churches in Samogitia (Zmudz) could also be included in this group. Throughout the history, the latter churches have been represented by a small number of tiny buildings of a modest but traditional architecture of which none but one have survived, and moreover only in ruins. This notwithstanding, one must stress the originality of this architecture on the European scale. To this end, in the stone Uniate church in Greater Svorotva, which clearly shows its author's flair for architectural design, we can but admire the masterly solution to the vertex problem. On this solution one can conclude that it is more consistent and more vividly striking than, for example, that introduced in the not realized Pozzo's design. It should also be noted that from the end of the 18th century the Russian political pressure had limited the construction activities and the experimentation in the area, hence impeding ingenuity in building such churches.
Every builder knows it well that the triangle is a rigid figure, resistant to deformation, contrary to other polygons. R. Buckminster Fuller calls the triangle "the only self-stabilizing polygon". If we do not break the element that makes one of the triangle's sides, we are not able to alter its shape. The inherent resistance of the triangle to any change and transformation can be seen as a characteristic adding a symbolic might to the temples in question.
A total rejection of the Freemasonry tread within the Uniate church in Great Svorotva would require a prior detailed archival studies pertaining to
the Niezabitowski family and their village of Svorotva. Perhaps we will never
find what the actual situation was like.
This study would not have been possible without the contributions from several persons. Dr. Jacek Czubiński was the author's (JKL's) companion in the exploration trip to today's Belarus in 2002, and he later supervised the computer-generated reconstruction of the church in question. Ms. Magdalena Czubińska with a great intuition and thoroughness has researched similar designs and realizations; this research is expected to result in a comprehensive catalogue of such buildings. Mr. Błażej Skaziński drew the author's attention to the church in Planès. Mr. Kalist provided the author with current high quality photos of the Planès church. Professor S.A. Sergachev of the Belorusian National Technical University (BNTU) in Minsk and his publications were the author's first guide through the history of "triangular" Uniate churches in Belarus, as well as a source for bibliography and reconstruction of these buildings. Professor Elena Morozova and Professor Vladimir Tracewski of the BNTU facilitated the information exchange. Mr. Hans-Everhard Mennemann of Fachhochschule Münster provided publications on Bruck and Münster. Mr. Józef Oszacki of New York sent to the author an article on Boromini's inspirations. Ms. Justyna Tucholska worked out computerized drawings and visualization of the church in Greater Svorotva.
To all and every one of these persons the author is deeply
grateful. In the planned continuation of the present study, an attempt will be
made to catalogue the buildings established on an equilateral triangle plan.
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