Church of Virgin Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

About object:

After restoration of Independence, a wave of construction of sacral buildings overwhelmed Lithuania. It was expected that upon liquidation of Soviet censorship, crowds of people would flow to churches. But it not happened so, and then the buildings of churches more modest in size, but no less expressive were started to design. One of them is the Churche the Virgin Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Siauliai City.

This parish church of Catholic community has 400 seats. It is a part of a complex including a parish house and a rectory as well. The authors of the project sought to reconcile strict function of liturgical canons with modern architectural expression without loss of the building’s sacredness. A strict axial symmetry perspective dominates in the internal space, which exhibits three key elements of the presbytery: an altar, a tabernacle and the main focus – a sculpture of
St. Virgin Mary.

The architects consciously selected one of the basic geometric shapes – an oval – for the design of the sacral building: the small church due to the oval structure of the plan, which is also clearly articulated in the building’s volumes, has become easily recognizable and memorable sign of the location.

A. Štelbienė