Construction and development of the architectural complex of St George’s Church and the former monastery of the First Carmelites.

Straipsnyje pateikiamos Vilniaus buvusio senosios regulos karmelitų vienuolyno ir Šv. Jurgio bažnyčios žvalgomųjų architektūrinių tyrimų, vykusių 2017 m., išvados. Kartu su atliktais polichrominiais ir istoriniais tyrimais architektūros natūros tyrimai suteikia daug naujos informacijos apie vieną mažiausiai iki šiol tyrinėtų vienuolynų kompleksų Vilniuje. Straipsnis iliustruotas tyrimų metu aptiktų įdomiausių architektūrinių elementų ir atidengto polichrominio dekoro fragmentų nuotraukomis.The architectural research and study of the surviving traces of architectural polychrome conducted in 2017 on the building complex of St George’s Church and the former Carmelite monastery in Vilnius supplement the scanty historiographical material. The exposed masonry revealed the process of construction and later transformations of the buildings and their specific architectural elements. It turned out that the construction of the bell tower began in the early 18th century, but it was never completed; a spiral staircase walled up in the 19th century was discovered; the spatial change of the first church and its alterations during subsequent reconstructions were identified; the size of the first sacristy and the change of architectural elements in the chapel were traced. Even though the research on the connection of two monastery buildings still poses more questions than gives answers, the discovery of early seventeenth-century masonry in the walls of all monastery buildings adds a new angle to the existing data. The research revealed changes in the architectural elements of the façades of these buildings. Contours of a detached building dated to the 17th century were identified in the composition of the current structure, and the stages of its architectural development were defined. The discovered place of a planned connection to a new building going back to the middle of the 18th century allows us to think that the monks were planning to expand the monastery. The construction time of the church vestibule, the oratory annex and the entrance next to the bell tower was specified. It was discovered that even the comparatively new structure of the seminary dated to the early 20th century underwent a large-scale reconstruction that changed its size immediately after its completion. The monastery and the church buildings have retained a number of architectural elements and structures from various stages of development. Three major reconstructions that significantly altered the identity of the architectural complex have been distinguished. Besides the well-known reconstruction after the fire of 1750–1755, unexpectedly large-scale alterations were performed after the Muscovite occupation in 1655–1661, let alone the last major reconstruction of the 19th century when the buildings were adapted for the seminary