Commons:Featured picture candidates/File:Tytuvėnai Monastery Church Interior, Tytuvėnai, Lithuania - Diliff.jpg

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File:Tytuvėnai Monastery Church Interior, Tytuvėnai, Lithuania - Diliff.jpg, featured[edit]

Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes.Voting period ends on 13 Mar 2015 at 16:26:35 (UTC)
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Tytuvėnai Monastery Church Interior.
  •  Info created by Diliff - uploaded by Diliff - nominated by Pofka -- Pofka (talk) 16:26, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support Never before saw this church decorated like that. Some important mass must have been held at that time or something. -- Pofka (talk) 16:26, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
    • Really, Pofka? I hadn't seen it before either until I visited Lithania. I saw maybe 3 or 4 churches decorated in this way (this one was in Šiluva, I took only a hand-held pano very quickly, because a service was about to begin and I couldn't photograph it properly, so it has stitching faults and can't really be used on Wiki), so I thought it was a special Lithuanian thing. ;-) Since then, I have a few other Eastern European churches with similar decorations but I don't know exactly what the significance is or what it is called. Diliff (talk) 18:18, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I'm curious why they were decorated like that in your pictures as well. At first, I thought that it might be connected with the wedding ceremonies or something, but that is not quite likely as there are way too much churches looking like that at the same time (St. Anne's Church in Vilnius is a frequent site of weddings, however I doubt that Tytuvėnai is frequently used for that as well). As I understand, you took all these pictures in a very short duration. Due to that, I think it is possible that some important Catholic events or days commemorations were taking place. I believe there should have been some advertisement sheets about it somewhere. Though, I'm surprised that you saw other Eastern European churches decorated in the same way (at similar period?) because Lithuania and Poland are the only Catholic countries in the region. Belarus, Ukraine, Russia are Orthodox, Latvia, Estonia are Lutheran (and Orthodox due to the Russian minorities as well). All these decorated churches and monasteries in your pictures are Catholic, so if the other churches you saw in the another Eastern Europe countries were Catholic as well, I think it must have been some religiously important days/period. It seems my religious knowledge isn't high enough to sort it out. =D -- Pofka (talk) 20:47, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I think you're right, it was a Polish church I saw. I can't recall where it was, maybe Commons or maybe Flickr. I searched for "Polish church interior" on Flickr and found four churches with the same decorations, but no explanation about why. We can just call it a Polish-Lithuanian tradition for now. :-) Diliff (talk) 21:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • These pictures in Flickr are taken at completely different dates: July 12, June 1, May 22, August 14 and yours photos are from September. That's really difficult to identify the exact decorating reason. Maybe some other more religious person will tell us why. =) -- Pofka (talk) 22:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  •  Support. Thanks again for the nomination. Eventually you will get through all my Lithuanian photos! The ones worth nominating anyway. Again, not a perfect interior for me, but I think the beauty of the interior is enough. Diliff (talk) 18:22, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • That is my aim for now. =D Later I'm planning to move on your Latvian churches. Some of them looks just terrific in your shots as well. It looks even better in your shots than in reality as I previously had a chance to visit some of these and they weren't that impressive. Maybe that's because I'm used to the luxurious Catholic churches in Vilnius, which is a complete opposition of Lutheranism. =D -- Pofka (talk) 20:47, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I appreciate all the different architectural styles really, but I must admit, the Lithuanian churches were much more impressive overall. ;-) I was a bit disappointed with the Lutheran churches in Latvia. Riga Cathedral and St Peter's were quite big, but also cold, uninviting and not so interesting inside. And unlike in Lithuania, they almost all required 'donations' (it's not a donation if you insist!) to visit. Diliff (talk) 21:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I thought just the same when I saw huge Riga Cathedral for the first time, however its interior was quite empty and disappointing. Though that's how Lutheranism exactly works. They want to keep everything simple when the Catholics wants to show God's greatness and humans weakness with the luxurious interiors full of saints frescoes. There are so many luxurious churches in Lithuania (especially in Vilnius and Kaunas) because this territory was the heart of the huge Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Many nobles financed expensive constructions of monasteries and churches there and that is why there are so many of them, compared with Latvia and Estonia. Latvia, Estonia always were quite tiny and military-based territories (that's why they have many castles). Klaipėda often was captured by other states and because of that there really is no such Catholic objects. It even reminds Riga a bit but sadly its main huge Lutheran church with vast tower haven't survived the World War II when it was completely exploded and the restoration project is kind of stuck to this day. Actually, I'm surprised how these churches in Vilnius nowadays are able to survive and even reconstruct themselves. There are way too many of them for a 0.5 million inhabitants city of nowadays and relying solely on donations should be just impossible. Though, I'm happy they are able to keep our heritage in a good condition. =) -- Pofka (talk) 22:44, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • It's nice to hear your point of view as a local. There was only one church that was in quite bad condition inside. I was always seeing the roof and towers when I was walking around, so went down some small streets and found its entrance in a courtyard. I can't remember the name of it, I never stayed to take a photo of it because there wasn't too much to see and it felt like a construction site! Maybe I should have taken a photo so we could have a high quality 'before' picture to match a new restored picture if it ever happens. Ah yes, on Google Maps, it's called "Bazilijonų bažnyčia", near the Church of St Theresa. Do you know it? Diliff (talk) 22:57, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • The restoration works are under-way in the Trinity church and that is why it looks like a construction site. =) As far as I remember, it was stuck for a while because the church belongs to Uniate monastery and there were discussions between the monastery and the city municipality on how much each side should invest. They already reached an agreement and the restoration works began in September (I guess just in the time of your visit to Lithuania). It was in a poor condition due to the barbaric Lithuania occupations. Many Catholic churches were despoiled, converted into warehouses or even stables (including the Vilnius Cathedral). Russia even recolored some of them later into more poorly visible colors (light yellow, white) to distinguish the Orthodox churches. Some were even demolished. Many churches in Vilnius currently are recolored back to their historic colors (pink, red). Kaunas cathedral interior (perfectly captured in your photo after the restoration) previously was converted into Orthodox church by destroying its historic Catholic interior. The Grand Dukes Palace was completely abandoned and at times it even was the shelter to the homeless people, later it was used in other ways and even was almost completely demolished by trying to delete the glorious Grand Duchy history from the people's minds. Another heavily damaged object is the Sapieha Palace in Antakalnis (Vilnius). It is a huge baroque palace complex previously built by one of the wealthiest Grand Duchy families, however the Russians transformed it into hospital and damaged its luxurious interiors and even the exterior (all the frescoes were painted over, huge windows, halls were reduced). Some complex buildings served as psychiatry. Gladly, it remained standing and is under-reconstruction as well. It doesn't look that ugly anymore, yet there is a lot of work to be done. St. Peter and St. Paul's church is considered as a part of this complex. Another luxurious palace from the Grand Duchy history - Slushko Palace was converted into even crazier object - a jail. Sadly, it is not under-reconstruction yet as all the financing is focused on the Sapieha and the Grand Dukes palaces. Vilnius historical heritage will probably look quite different after the following decade. =) -- Pofka (talk) 10:23, 5 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Confirmed results:
Result: 11 support, 1 oppose, 0 neutral → featured. /KTC (talk) 22:04, 13 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
This image will be added to the FP gallery: Places/Interiors
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