Johann Christoph Glaubitz

Facade of Church of St. Johns, Vilnius, Glaubitz's finest work

Basilian Gate of the Holy Trinity monastery in Vilnius

Johann Christoph Glaubitz (c. 1700 – 30 March 1767) was an architect of German descent who is generally considered to be the most prominent Baroque architect in the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Early life

Glaubitz was born in Schweidnitz, Duchies of Silesia (now Świdnica, Poland), and spent the first 37 years of his life there.

Architecture

After a devastating fire occurred in 1737 in Vilnius, he was called to rebuild Catholic St. Johns' Church, which in 1555 had been funded by German merchants.

Glaubitz, who was among the leaders of the Lutheran community^[1] of Vilnius, is credited for developing a distinct Lithuanian school of Baroque architecture, known as Vilnian Baroque, which is best reflected in the cityscape of the Vilnius Old Town. This has contributed to the widespread naming of Old Vilnius as the "City of Baroque".

There are at least four churches in Vilnius reconstructed by Glaubitz, namely the Church of St. Catherine (1743),^[2] the Church of the Ascension (1750), the Church of St. Johns, the monastery gate and the towers of the Church of the Holy Trinity. The magnificent and dynamic Baroque facade of the formerly Gothic Church of St. Johns (1749) is mentioned among his best works. Many church interiors including the one of the Great Synagogue of Vilna were reconstructed by Glaubitz as well as the Town Hall in 1769.

One of Glaubitz's notable buildings was the former Carmelite church of Glubokas (Hlybokaye), which he reconstructed in 1735; it is now the Orthodox Church of the Birth of Theotokos. In 1746—1750 he restored Mscislaŭ Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.^[3] Other towns with Glaubitz's architecture include Mogiliavas (Mogilev), Lyda (Lida), and the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Polotsk, all three in what is now Belarus and Daugavpils in Latvia. The Basilian Church and Monastery in Berezwecz, now part of Hlybokaye, was built in 1776 and demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. Its replica was constructed in Białystok in the 1990s.

References

^ Wilfried Schlau: Tausend Jahre Nachbarschaft. Die Völker des baltischen Raumes und die Deutschen, Seite 281, Stiftung Ostdeutscher Kulturrat (Hg.), Verlag Bruckmann, 1995, ISBN 3-7654-2404-8 bzw. ISBN 978-3-7654-2404-5 (Auszug)
^ Christiane Bauermeister: Litauen, 2007, Seite 70 (Digitalisat)
^ Kulagin & Tzerashchatova 1986, p. 305.

Sources

S. Lorentz, Jan Krzysztof Glaubitz - architekt wileński XVIII wieku, Warszawa 1937
Kulagin, A. M.; Tzerashchatova, V. V. (1986). Збор помнікаў гісторыі і культуры. Магілёўская вобласць [Collection of Cultural Heritage monuments in Mogilev region]. Minsk: Беларуская Савецкая Энцыклапедыя імя Петруся Броўкі. p. 305.