Linkuva cemetery chapel and its altar

Linkuva cemetery chapel was built in a newly established parish cemetery in the end of the 18th century (in 1797 or 1798). The chapel was under major reconstruction in the end of the 19th century, probably after 1880. The chapel belongs to the group of rare octagonal chapels in Lithuania and together with Kaltinėnai cemetery chapel is considered to be the most valuable building of this type in Lithuania. The altar of high artistic value with retabulum, wall paintings in camaieu technique and original and artistic choir partition wall of the gallery increase the chapel’s value. No other surviving octagonal chapel in Lithuania is so valuable, however, Linkuva chapel is not included into the list of cultural values although similar buildings of much lower value have this status. This clearly shows the lack of priorities in the activities of heritage preservation institutions and absence of typological-comparative analysis. The altar of the cemetery chapel was under major repair in the end of the 19th century. At that time, the decorating antepedium composition was painted and new carvings were added to the retabulum. The first phase of the chapel retabulum’s analysis suggests that there a stripped ornament was probably for the first time in Lithuania used as an independent decorative motif. Even older (the end of the 17th century) stripped ornaments we can see in the frame of Our Lady picture in the main altar of Linkuva Church, however, here they have no decorative value. The examples of the study of the early stripped pattern allow to refute the links of the early phase of this ornament with the so-called Regency style