Brigitta Monastery of Grodno
The Brigitte Monastery in Grodno ( Hrodna ; Belarusian кляштар брыгітак ) was a nunnery of the Order of the Redeemer , which existed from 1634 to 1842 , then in Poland-Lithuania and the Russian Empire , now in Belarus .
history
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In 1834 Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, Grand Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , and his wife Aleksandra founded a monastery for the Brigite Order . The reason was apparently the death of their 19-year-old daughter Gryzelda. In 1836 the first eight nuns came from the monastery in Lublin . A stone monastery complex was built and the church was consecrated in 1651.
In the following period the sisters had to live in the Gdansk monastery for three years because of the Russo-Polish War .
The convent consisted of about 20 to 30 nuns, most of whom were of noble origin. In 1745 there were 31. The monastery owned extensive land in the area.
After the area came to the Russian Empire in 1795 , the buildings were also used in 1827 to hold two women who had been involved in the Decembrist uprising .
In 1842 the monastery was closed by the Russian authorities. The nuns were allowed to stay there until they died. In 1891 there were five, in 1902 two former novices . The buildings were used as a prison.
In 1907 the facility was handed over to the Order of the Nazarethan Sisters . In 1950 they had to leave the building. After that, a kindergarten was housed there and then a psychiatric clinic for many years.
In 1990 the church was returned to the Catholic Church. The former monastery complex is now used as a museum.
Church of the Assumption
The former monastery church, now the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a single-nave hall church with a retracted choir and two western towers in the style of the early Baroque with models from the late Renaissance . It was built from 1642 to 1651 according to plans by the Italian architect Benedetto Molli .
The interior from the time it was built has been preserved. The main altar was designed in 1642 by Johann Schretter from Danzig . There are also other altarpieces and paintings, a pulpit, a tabernacle and other objects. The organ was probably originally built by Merten Friese from Gdansk or one of his students and rebuilt in the 19th century.
Monastery complex
The monastery complex from the 17th century has been preserved as a building complex.
A mud house ( лямус ) from 1636, in which the nuns probably lived in the first few years, is particularly valuable in terms of building history and is the oldest preserved of its kind in Belarus.
literature
- Кудряшов В. И .: Гродно (= Архитектура городов СССР) . Moscow 1960. pp. 44-58.
Web links
- History of the monastery ( memento from June 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Grodno news (Belarusian)