Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Łužki

o projekcie

The former Piarist Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Łužki in the Vitebsk Oblast in Belarus was founded together with the Piarist College in 1741 by Walerian Antoni Żaba, Greater Castellan of Połock (died 1753). The church was built in the period 1742-1756, most likely under the supervision of Abraham Würtzner, an architect. The founder’s passing in 1753 did not stop the process of construction. The construction was finished thanks to the involvement of the founder’s widow, Joanna of Skrzetuski, and his son, Ignacy Żaba.

The baroque two-steeple façade of the building comes before a broad central nave with a narrower and lower chancel. The interiors of the church were originally decorated with wooden altars and a range of ornaments.

The first renovation of the church took place at the beginning of the 19^thcentury. In 1833, the monastery and the college building were closed and abandoned by Piarists. In 1840, the church had a new parish founded, but three years later it was transformed into an Orthodox church. It was returned to Catholics in 1919. They were taking care of it until 1948, when the building was handed over to the local kolkhoz and adapted for commercial purposes. The squalid and devastated church was given back to the faithful in 1988. That year marked the start of the long period of restoring it to its former glory.

2017

In 2017, the Association of Academic Traditions (the Foundation’s partner) organised an intervention to preserve the dome and the cross of the east steeple, both in danger of collapsing. The wooden staircase inside the steeple, almost completely destroyed, was removed, which made it possible to fit a new structure inside the steeple and reach the dome. The dome’s decayed structural element was replaced, a new cross was fixed, and its joint with the dome’s plane was sealed. Earlier on, the steeple’s condition was gradually deteriorating mainly because of the birds inhabiting it and due to the negative impact of atmospheric conditions. To protect the monument from the impact of both, it was decided to insert transparent polycarbonate panes into the window openings.

The task was carried out with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage’s funds granted to the Association of Academic Traditions (the Foundation’s partner) as part of the programme entitled “Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad”.