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Saint Anne’s Chapel of Kačerginė

Kacergine, Lithuania
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M. Plepio nuotrauka, 2018 m.

After the First World War, as the Kacergine summer village grew and the population increased, the spiritual life of the inhabitants became a matter of concern, and the building of a shrine was considered. In 1936, architect Vytautas Landsbergis-Zemkalnis, who stayed in Kacergine between the wars, prepared a design for a unique chapel:

"My father designed it out of wood, light, with transparent walls, so that when it was built in a pine forest, it would not be separated from nature - the Church of God" (from the memoirs of Prof. V. Landsbergis-son of the architect).

However, the clients found it too unconventional, so in 1938 they built another one. The outbreak of the Second World War and the Soviet occupation disrupted the parish community, and religious life ended. After 1994, a new religious community took the initiative to restore the Kacergine Chapel. The new chapel was built in 1998 based on a 1936 design by V. Landsbergis-Zemkalnis, which was adjusted by architects Feliksas Jackevicius and Gediminas Jurevicius. Construction took four months. The chapel was consecrated on 26 December 1998.

Although Landsbergis-Zemkalnis designed several churches in Lithuania before the Second World War, the Kacergine chapel, above all, was distinguished by its distinctive, timeless philosophy. A building that becomes not an accent, but a harmonious part of the surrounding environment, where even when inside, one can feel a connection with the environment, as if merging with it. Unfortunately, this idea was realised at a time when it was no longer so avant-garde in the world.

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