Famous Polish restorer and Historicism period architect Stefan Szyller left a mark in the territory of the present Lithuania as well: in 1909 he drew up the project of the new church in Druskininkai. The old one just became too small to meet needs of the resort rapidly developing. The construction of it was launched even before the First World War, yet ultimately it was completed in the early thirties. The result of this work by the architect – a small, still expressive study of the rich Gothic forms. In the bottom part of the three-tier tower, a particularly wide portal, massive and pointed-arch, is integrated, which on the top is decorated with a stepped trimming, as if holding a niche above it. The lower tiers of the tower and some ideas of facade composition are reminiscent of the Gothic Prussia Lutheran churches of that time. True, the solution of gracious octagonal upper tier is characteristic enough of single-tower Lithuanian Neo-Gothic Catholic churches of the same age. The spire is supplemented by a sumptuous crown of pinnacles, surrounding the spire.
Interestingly, in the corners of the main volume, there are smaller towers integrated; the ones in the front are lower and do not have helmets. In the side facades, extremely large windows stand out, integrated among buttresses. The volumes of the rear part of the church are set up in a complicated manner: various, different in height additions adjoin the presbytery and the apse. The illuminated three-nave space of the interior is divided by the impetuous profiled pillars, which are inter-connected with pointed arches. The plastered ribbed vaults, cross and rib type, are held by the pillars: particularly impressive vaults are installed in the presbytery part. The solution of the inside space formed by the pillars is finely supplemented by a pointed-arch choir balcony niche, accentuated with an extremely wide trimming.
Church of Saint Mary’s Scapular in Druskininkai - Šv. Jokūbo g. 7, Druskininkai 66119, Lietuva
