Scholarly record

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE 16-TH CENTURY CHURCH OF ANNUNCIATION IN SUPRASL

A. Musiuk

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the problems of the reconstruction of The Annunciation Church in Suprasl. In the introduction the subject of the considerations is defined, and then a historical background is presented. The main part of the article consists of three parts that correspond to the reconstruction work. The first part is a description of the reconstruction of the building, the second refers to the reconstruction of the interior. In the third part, the methodology of reconstruction of polychrome and related problems are discussed. The final part is the conclusion, which emphasizes the importance of research for similar activities. The church of the Annunciation in Suprasl (Poland, podlaskie voivodeship) established in 1503-11 has been reconstructing for 34 years. The brick church with its gorgeous gothic architecture and iconography from byzantine part of the Balkan culture was an exceptional temple considered as an outstanding architecture building and an art object. The church was built not only for sacred but also for defensive purposes. There was no such a building before in the whole history of architecture. The church in Suprasl belonged to the small typologically distinct group of defended gothic-byzantine churches with four towers flanked. On the border of Poland, Belarus and Lithuania only six such buildings of this type have been preserved till present time and the church of Annunciation is the biggest and the most relevant among them. The ongoing reconstruction is a difficult task. The little archives concerning the church are often incompatible. The present paper describes the completed reconstruction of the body of the church. It also discusses the reconstruction of the 16th century frescoes started in 2016 and spread over a number of years. In this case, due to contradictions and lack of historical materials project decisions are made up based on hypothesis and comparative analysis. The author of the article, who is conducting the reconstruction of the church for 20 years, indicates the assumptions of the reconstruction of frescoes based on the photographic documentation from 20th century and comparative analysis of frescoes in the one of Balkan churches from similar historical period. The paper also indicates directions of the future work.

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