Orthodox church of the Annunciation in Supraśl, Eastern Orthodox religious site in Supraśl, Poland.
The Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Supraśl is a five-tower church of the Annunciation Monastery, consecrated in 1511 and built in the Gothic style of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: a cross-domed plan with features of a Catholic basilica. Four corner towers served defensive purposes, while the fifth, meant to mark the central dome, rises unusually tall under a steep Gothic roof. Thirty surviving fresco fragments are now displayed in the icon museum.
The monastery was founded by the grand marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Aleksander Chodkiewicz, between 1505 and 1510, and the church was consecrated in 1511. In 1557 its interior was decorated with frescoes. In the first half of the 17th century the church passed to the Uniate church, and in 1771 the tower tops and interior were remade in rococo style. On 28 July 1944 the cathedral was blown up during the German retreat; Archbishop Sawa laid the first stone of the rebuilt cathedral on 4 June 1984.
The monastery was one of the main intellectual centres of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, alongside the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and Vilnius. Its church, consecrated in 1511, held a silver-gilt chalice donated by the founder Oleksandr Chodkiewicz, bearing his coat of arms, and a cross containing a fragment of the True Cross dated 1500–1510. Thirty fragments of the church's frescoes are now displayed in the icon museum.
The site includes accommodations, an icon museum, and a museum dedicated to traditional crafts from the region. Plan your visit during warmer months when all buildings are easily accessible and the grounds are in their best condition.
The 1944 explosion left only fragments of the frescoes, which Polish restorers removed from the pillars under Władysław Paszkowski in 1945–1946. Thirty surviving fragments are now displayed in the monastery's icon museum. The church itself was rebuilt only from 1984, when Archbishop Sawa of Białystok–Gdańsk laid the foundation stone on 4 June.
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