Complex of buildings of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kretinga

The Building Complex of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kretinga

Former quite large Lutheran Parish of Kretinga has changed the place of its prayer house at least several times due to various incidents. At the end of the nineteenth century, after the fire, which devastated the structures of the parish, the sanctum was established in a small brick house. Although the exact time of the building’s construction is unknown, it can be considered as an example of a residential building of a rich city dweller of the 19^th century. The building is still here, though now it is a parish house. Former sanctum of modest proportions gave up its role to the newly alongside built neo-Gothic church in 1897.

The building may be a bit close to the church of Šilutė, which had emerged later in other circumstances completely, for its volume and some elements of the façade composition. And yet, it is the stone masonry solution, rare in Lithuania, which catches the eye the first: it used to be rather more typical of the northern part of Samogitia. We can see many characteristics of the popular single-tower neo-Gothic sanctums in the main façade, such as, three-level buttresses supporting the sides of the tower or the composition of two pointed windows and a round window, arranged in the pointed-arched niches. However, the Lutheran modesty can be sensed here.

The rhythm of especially massive windows of the same solution, arranged in the lateral façades between the buttresses, gives a special monumentality to the building. The interior area is typical of the confession houses – it is not overloaded; one of the most decorative accents is the altar of neo-Gothic forms, and the presbyterian part is separated by the pointed triumphal arch. Although the church is not surrounded by the lateral galleries which are common in many Lutheran churches of Lithuania, we can see a contrast when facing the organ gallery: one of the oldest Baroque organs in the country, which once have been transferred here from the church of Kretingalė.

Detail