Urbis et Orbis: Mikroistoriâ i Semiotika Goroda (Dec 2022)
The role of religious buildings in forming the appearance of Belarusian cities in the end of the 16th – beginning of the 20th centuries
Abstract
The article is devoted to the study of the role of religious buildings in shaping the appearance of the cities of Belarus in the late 16th – early 20th centuries. Cities arose at different times. This was facilitated by various circumstances. During the period under study, religious buildings became the most important attribute of the city. They were not only rooms for religious rites, but also performed many other social functions, including those built to protect the population during numerous wars. The purpose of the article is to determine the role of religious buildings in shaping the appearance of Belarusian cities and to identify those factors that influenced the appearance of temples of various confessions. The multi-confessional diversity in the Belarusian lands has led to the fact that in most settlements, and especially in cities, churches of various confessions began to be built. At the same time, Orthodox and Catholic churches often coexisted, creating the core of the settlement. But as a result of numerous wars that took place on the Belarusian lands during the period of the Commonwealth, many cities were destroyed and then rebuilt in a new way. And since Catholicism was the dominant religion in the Commonwealth, Catholic monasteries received advantages from the authorities in the development of urban areas. In many cities, along with Catholic churches, there were also Uniate, Orthodox and Protestant churches. Prayer buildings for Jews and Muslim Tatars were also built. After the inclusion of the Belarusian lands into the Russian Empire, significant changes take place in all spheres of social life of the Belarusian lands. The tsarist authorities contributed to the construction of Orthodox churches, although churches of other denominations were also built. In general, religious buildings were often one of the most important dominants of the city and created its special silhouette. On the basis of historical-cultural and cultural-geographical approaches, an analysis of construction in the period from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 20th centuries are carried out. religious buildings in Belarusian cities and their role in shaping the image of the city. A descriptive method was used to analyze the dynamics of the formation of the city’s image. The typological method is aimed at classifying the architectural space of Belarusian cities.
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