Refugia na peryferiach. Pałace w Słobitach i Birżach jako przykłady architektury rodów kalwińskich
A Sanctuary in the Peripheries. Palaces in Słobity and Birże as Examples of Calvinist Families’ Architecture

Summary/Abstract: The article contains a juxtaposition and comparative analysis of the 17th-century palaces of the zu Dohna family in Słobity (German: Schlobitten) and the Radziwiłł family in Birże (now Biržai in Lithuania) as examples of residences of two Calvinist gentry families from Ducal Prussia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The author shows the influence of the treatise Des fortifications et artifices by the Huguenot author Jacques Perret on the form and function of both complexes, pointing to correlations in the arrangement of space and structure. On the basis of archival sources and comparative research, the author argues that the architecture of both complexes was influenced by the owners’ Calvinist denomination and was a manifestation of their religious and social identity. The study contributes to research on the heritage of Protestant secular architecture, particularly in the political borderlands between Prussia and the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania.

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