Church of St. Michael, Synkavichy

The Church of St. Michael is situated on the northern outskirts of the village of Synkavichy, Zelva District, Hrodna Province, in Belarus.

Description

The Synkavichy Church is a monument of defense architecture. The church was made of brick in the middle of the 16th century with Gothic-style features. The temple is a three-nave four-pillar basilica. The three-apse church has an irregular rectangular layout flanked in the comers by four defence towers, which are cut in the main facade and rounded in the rear one. The cornice is encompassed by a of round embrasures and arch machicolations. A high double-pitch roof is covered by strong sharp¬angled boards on the sides. The boards are embellished with tiers of plastered arcature. The bays were whitewashed, which created an effective color range against the background of red brickwork. The babynets was built on later. There is a rubble-brick two-level tetrahedral belfry closed by a hipped roof in front of the church. The hall of the temple is covered by groin vaults with ornamental Gothic nervure. The central and northern apses are covered by groin vaults while the southern one is covered by a ribbed vault. Plastered walls are divided by edges that are joined to pillars by arches. Inside the towers spiral staircases connect the hall with the attic where the defence level of the church was situated.In 1880-1881, the roof was replaced, a vestibule and a cupola over the apse where added, and a cupola over the central part of the church was dismantled (by engineer Trubnikov).A prominent feature of the lay-out of the building is its slight irregularity, some curvature of the axis of the apses toward the naves. The church was probably constructed by local workmen who used simple, not very precise sizing tools for the lay-out. Today the church is an active place of worship.

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World Heritage Status

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on January 30th, 2004 in the Cultural category.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Edifices for Worship of Fortress Type in Belarus, Poland and Lithuania - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
2. ^ Edifices for Worship of Fortress Type in Belarus, Poland and Lithuania - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

References

Edifices for Worship of Fortress Type in Belarus, Poland and Lithuania - UNESCO World Heritage Centre