The Belfry of Musninkai Church of the Holy Trinity

The first wooden church in Musninkai town was built before the 16^th century and was later taken over by evangelical reformers. It was decided to build a new stone church in the middle of the 19^th century. In 1855-1861, Mykolas Podberskis, the landlord of Musninkai Manor together with the parisioners built the present church in the place of the old church. It may be considered the earliest neo-Gothic single-tower church in Lithuania. It suffered during World War I and was repaired during the interwar period. Alfonsas Petrulis, the signatory of the Act of Independence of 16^th February 1918, is buried in the churchyard.

The belfry erected next to the new church in 1868 is an excellently preserved example of authentic folk architecture. The low belfry of a massive silhouette and compact volume is built on the field stone foundation and has a square layout, two sections, a basement and an attic. The walls are made of hewn logs, joined at the corners by dovetail joints. The four-sided roof is covered with shingles, as is typical to the old ethnic architecture, the tin-covered cone-shaped peak is topped with an ornamented forged metal cross. The windows and door of the first section are arched, and the section ends with a small shingle roof. The second section is narrower than the first one and has triple acoustic holes covered with horizontal imitations of wooden blinds. The belfry was reconstructed several times: in 1934, 1962, 1967 and in 1973.

Detail