Uniats and their sacral buildings in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Straipsnyje trumpai pristatoma po 1596 m. bažnytinės Bresto unijos Lietuvos Didžiojoje kunigaikštystėje (LDK) susikūrusi nauja unitų religinė bendruomenė ir ją reprezentuojantys sakraliniai pastatai, kurie XVII–XVIII a. pabaigoje papildė LDK sakralinės architektūros panoramą naujais ir originaliais akcentais. Šio tyrimo uždavinys – pateikti XVII–XVIII a. LDK kai kurių unitų pastatytų, perstatytų ar atstatytų sakralinių pastatų analizę ir trumpą cerkvių architektūros raidos istoriją. Remiantis šia analize išryškinti unitų sakralinių pastatų stilistinius bruožus.The ecclesiastical union of Brest of 1596 and the newly established religious community of the Uniats and their activity in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was and still is contradictory construed by many researchers of culture, history and religion. This contradiction consists in categorical political or religious position which now could be named as a single problem causing a complicated view to the character of the Uniats activity in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Uniats heritage covered with political and religious outlooks is still lacking cultural aspects leading into deeper investigations of the concerning topic and possibility to decrease the categorical and single–sided evaluations. This point of view also brings new accents for the cultural research of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The architectural Uniats practice in the XVII–XVIIIth century in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania forms one of the streams in these researches. In this period Uniat church became one of the main architectural contractors alongside the existing Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and other confessions. In two centuries newly erected as well reconstructed or rebuilt forfeit orthodox churches and cloistral complexes augmented the architectural panorama of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with new and original accents. Sacral buildings of the Uniats with their architectural expression became the uniting chain of the architectural composition and also decoration fundamentals in between the in Orthodox and Catholic sacral architecture. The Uniat churches witness not only the Baroque and Classicism architectural tendencies of XVII–XVIIIth centuries but also represent the former architectural style principles used in ancient Russian Byzantinesque, Gothic and Renaissance sacral architecture. The above mentioned conjoin of traditions and audacious architectural solutions applying the variation principles of composition are the exact gauge enabling to atribute the sacral buildings of Uniats to the unique and valuable heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania open to the forthcoming researches