Origin and characteristics of Lithuanian bricks

The term Lithuanian bricks was created and first used in historiography by Slav researchers interested in the peculiarities of old building in the region of East-West interaction. The present article discusses the questions of genesis and spread of Lithuanian bricks basing on the extensive practical research data and specialist literature. In the 13th century, the period of formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, two cultures with their building traditions clashed in its territory. After the split of the Roman Empire into East and West and the spread of two different confessions in East and West Europe, the two building traditions met once again in one large country. This consolidation was in the benefit of the Western culture as evidenced by the features of building technologies and change in building materials. The Western thick bricks started to replace the Eastern plinths going from Lombardy, Germany, and Poland to Volyne and other regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Lithuanian bricks are the bricks of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania having the following features: (1) greater thickness (in comparison to the Byzantine bricks), (2) oblong format (as a contrast to the square format), and (3) special grooves, braukos, impressed on the one side of the brick.The authors of the present article have researched over 150 architectural heritage objects from different epochs looking for braukos in their bricks. This allowed to estimate the exhaustive spread of Lithuanian bricks with braukos in the territory of the present day Lithuania including the oldest samples in Belarus. The earliest use of Lithuanian bricks has been detected in the defense tower of Akmenyčia, Lithuania, built in the last quarter of the 13th century. Bricks with braukos did not spread simultaneously in the present day Lithuanian territory. They were not typical in the fenced castles of the first half of the 14th century. [...]Vytauto Didžiojo universiteta