Signs of War and Disaster in the Heritage and Modern Church Architecture of Belarus

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the victory of the people in the Great Patriotic War. The scale of destruction of Belarus during the war years cannot be calculated, it is irreplaceable, and for the Republic, as time has shown, the traditional experience of restoration is not a universal solution to the problem of returning the values of the historical past. The article focuses on the research of a special way of Belarus in the revival of temples.

The fate of the heritage of the church architecture of the Republic is considered, starting from the military losses and the subsequent oblivion of sacred objects, up to the time of the revival of temples. The theme of addressing the concept of "sign of distress", the issues of the state of church architecture in Belarus at the turn of XX-XXI centuries are raised. The tendencies of modern art to transform the tragic meanings of history into synonyms of overcoming and national revival are noted.

The article presents the main signs of our time related to the reconstruction and restoration of valuable heritage objects. Restoration of the Assumption Cathedral in Vitebsk served the purpose of revival of the architectural dominance of the ancient city. The cathedral was built by monks of the Basilian order with the participation of Italian craftsmen (1743-1777) and destroyed during the atheism years (1936). Transfer to the believers and restoration of St. Nicholas Garrison Cathedral in the Brest Fortress allowed returning to culture the outstanding monument of architecture of the Byzantine style of the era of historicism. The temple was built according to the project of academician D.I. Grimm (1874-1877), and in summer 1941 it was destroyed in the fire of Brest Fortress defense against fascists. It shows how the problem of compensation for the church buildings lost during the war was solved by building temporary churches in Belarus at the beginning of the XXI century.

Questions of search of the modern typology of the architecture of an orthodox temple are raised. Special attention is paid to the church under construction in Minsk in the name of All Saints Who Shone All Over the World. The issues of the semantics of the architecture of the military memorial within the walls of the monument temple are also touched upon.