St. Catherine’s Monastery in Kaunas

About object:

The Silainiai district of Kaunas is located in beautiful surroundings – on the upper terrace of the Neris River. Since the construction of the sacral center was started way later than the district itself was built, the parts of the complex, i. e. Kaunas Silainiai Church of the Holy Spirit, the rectory with the chapel and presbytery and St. Catherine’s Monastery are located quite remotely from each other. The rectory is especially distant from the complex.
Therefore the architects, when designing the monastery, coded the following purposes in its plan: a correct cross-shaped plan was chosen, which can be easily “read” from the composition of the monastery’s volumes. The semantic relation with the church is also enhanced by the authors’ wish to physically double the construction lines, i. e. one wall of the monastery “catches” and reiterates the wall line of the church.
When planning the monastery, the symbol was also substantiated rationally and functionally: the wing, nearest to the church is used as a chapel with a conference hall underneath and the remaining three annexes are planned according to the monastery’s needs, in observance of the symmetrical corridor planning principle.
D. Paulauskienu and E. Miliunas conveyed the monastery’s asceticism by employing the means of architectural minimalism: massive monolithic surfaces are dominating therefore a significant aesthetic load falls onto the details, which were created by the authors with great care. For instance, the grey and red stone walls are met not bluntly, but by continuing the grey wall, making beads and narrow holes. Inside completely different mood can be seen – it is bright and lucid there, simple, flat, white painted surfaces are prevailing.

A. Stelbiene