Unrealised Projects of the Christ’s Resurrection Church Competition in Kaunas 1928–1930

Abstract

The object of this article is the monumental Christ’s Resurrection Church, one of the most famous UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kaunas. The competition for its architectural design was announced in 1928, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania. Competition and projects have been publicly criticised. The awards were given, but the design after the competition was entrusted to the third prize-winning architect Karolis Reisonas. However, his new design was not implemented, and the present church was built according to another project by the same architect. As a monument to the nation, the church was completed in 1940. However, it was consecrated only on 26 December 2004, after the Kaunas Radio Factory, which had been in operation for almost the entire Soviet occupation, had moved out of the building. For a long time, architectural studies attributed the authorship of the church design to the architect Karolis Reisonas. However, the question of authorship is problematic. Recent studies have attributed the high artistic level of building architecture to collective creative work. The research was carried out using historical-analytical and stylistic methods.

Keywords

• the christ’s resurrection church in kaunas
• karolis reisonas
• architectural competition
• unimplemented projects
• interwar lithuania
• modernist architecture in kaunas
• public criticism