The reflection of landscape in the church architecture of late baroque

Abstract

Using the phenomenological research approach offered by Christian Norberg-Schulz, the article discusses the impact of landscape on the architecture of Late Baroque churches in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The late eighteenth century brings changes to the understanding of landscape as natural environment – the ideas of Enlightenment encourage observing and explaining the natural surroundings and at the same time the Late Baroque expresses its profound love of nature. In architecture, instead of culturally biased rules, new nature’s rules are being introduced. Late Baroque two-towered masonry churches are erected in various locations characterized by a different topography. The article focuses on the churches of Naumiestis, Krinčinas, Volna, Dunilavichy and Gaina, reflecting the specific landscapes of respectively, flatlands, undulating hills, and higher elevations. Through the reflection of these different landscapes in the buildings of the churches, the baroque idea of the unity of the world, architecture, and mankind reveals itself. The article draws attention to the side elevations of the church buildings in which the ‘traditional’ spatial structures taken over from the historical styles and submitting to the baroque unity become a reflection of landscape.