There are only two circular-shaped sanctuaries in Lithuania. They are a monumental, classically proportioned local version of classicism. They sooner have a shape of Roman classicism that manifested itself in Lithuania and were influenced by the rotundas of the Roman times. One of these churches is a house of worship of a small village built on the initiative of Tomasz and Józefa Wawrzecki on the bank of Kalviai Lake in 1800-1806. They replaced the wooden church that burned down ten years ago, and that was built in the middle of the 18th century.
Two lower quadrangular volumes – the porch and the sacristy were attached to the space of a main circular-shaped plan. The cupola ends in a window-lantern, which is the main source of light in the windowless hall of the sanctuary. Monumental, classicist bandages of the pediments of the porch and the sacristy and the cornice separating the main volume of the building from the cupola add monumentality to that small church. The interesting thing is that the building is covered with red granite inlay on the exterior walls.
It is natural that the internal space of the small church is also sufficiently modest. Perhaps due to this, during the repair works carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, out of sixteen Doric columns that surrounded the inner space of the church and formed the gallery only six columns supporting the organ chorus above the entrance were left. The massive cornice replicating the exterior one separates the cupola from the walls. The wooden neo-gothic altar, as well as side neo-baroque altars, appeared before the First World War and overshadow a small hall of the church to some extent. It is thought that the wooden sculpture of the Crucifix that has features of renaissance located in the porch appeared at a similar time as the sanctuary itself.
Saint Anthony of Padua (Antanas Paduvietis) Church in Kalviai - Kalviai 56283, Lietuva
