BB.lv: On the foot of the Aglona Basilica: Latgale summer time attracts vacationers

BB.lv: On the foot of the Aglona Basilica: Latgale summer time attracts vacationers

However right here, away from the highways of nationwide significance, picture radars usually are not so fierce. You simply must maintain your eyes open as quickly because the folks’s Latgalian Audi seems – the drivers listed below are dashing.

Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Catholic church buildings all around the world are extra related than the settlements of our personal Latvia. Due to this fact, from afar, wanting on the white temple, you possibly can think regarding that you’re in Poland, Italy or Portugal.

However in actuality, following all, every part, as at all times, was constructed by the Lithuanians. In 1697, the pious landowner Eva Justina Shostovitskaya, who owned the Vyshkovo property – on the positioning of at this time’s Aglona – begged the Catholic Bishop of Livonia, Nikolai Poplavsky (1683-1709), to ascertain a monastery on her property. The calculation was most likely not solely religious, but in addition financial, for the reason that Dominican brothers may deliver financial revival to the area. No sooner stated than achieved, to satisfy the wants of the monastery, Pope Harmless XII, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus II and the above-mentioned Bishop Nicholas created a conference of the monastic order, and the primary picket church was erected. And the curator of all the challenge was Remigius Moskovskis, a prelate from Vilna.

Because the years handed, not every part went easily for the monks both – fires, all kinds of geopolitical upheavals. The native area, beforehand known as Inflyants, handed from Poland below the scepter of the Russian Empire. The mighty two-domed cathedral, which was constructed rather than the earlier church, stood unconsecrated for a very long time, however lastly in 1800, the inauguration befell, so to talk, on behalf of the Mogilev Metropolitan. You’re feeling the distinction, the gravity to the southeast has begun. On the faculty on the monastery, the place there have been 300 handwritten and printed books – an enormous library at the moment, kids from the encircling villages studied, the Latgalian language got here into circulation by means of the Latin spelling (in Latvian at the moment Gothic was used).

Development applied sciences have been sluggish at the moment, and the biggest bell in honor of St. Dominic was raised to the tower solely in 1839. Grasp Daniel Werner forged it, weighing a complete ton, in the identical Vilna. Properly, the second largest of the six bells of the basilica was made by craftsmen below the management of Pelagius Ivanov from Valdai in 1898.



Lithuanians praised their monarchs.

Though, following all, the Catholic brethren didn’t at all times really feel comfy contained in the Russian monarchy. For instance, Depend Mikhail Muravyov (1775-1865), who was affectionately known as the “hangman,” actively sought from Nicholas I the closure of the monastery and temple. However even with such a critical administrative useful resource, the dignitary in whose honor the city was named – Muravyevo, now Mazeikiai – didn’t have sufficient affect: Aglona remained the one working Dominican monastery within the Vitebsk province. And a spot of exile for troublemaker clergymen.

House of religion and leisure

Visiting Aglona outdoors of pilgrimage holidays is a sort of non-public communication with the transcendent. Nonetheless, the environment of electrified collective prayer is one thing else. And your writer, who doesn’t belong to the Catholic religion, nonetheless perceives the potential of a go to to such a shrine as extra of an aesthetic miracle. And that’s to say, such regularity and order can’t be discovered in all places within the considerably uncared for Latgale area. Contained in the 60-meter-high temple there’s a nice coolness; holy work determine characters near Orthodoxy – for instance, St. George the Victorious slaying the serpent. The renovated interiors of the cathedral are centered on the face of the Miraculous Mom of God of Aglona (seventeenth century), the veil from which is noticed solely throughout celebrations. He was miraculously saved throughout World Battle II by Dean Franz Lazdan. However the good Catholic and director of the Aglona gymnasium, Alois Brock, defended Jews and the mentally unwell from Nazi repression – and died in a focus camp. The returning atheistic authorities took the monastery for their very own establishments, and started to burn books within the boiler room of the Aglona station. Happily, among the clergymen and laity hid in one of many towers.

The Vatican didn’t go away a reminiscence of Aglona; the title Basilica minoris was awarded to the temple within the LSSR by John Paul II once more in 1980. 9 years later, the follow of pilgrimage was resumed – when vacationers walked greater than 2 hundred kilometers from the capital of the republic. Properly, on September 9, 1993, the end result got here – the go to of the Roman Pontiff. From that second to now, Aglona has turn into a nationwide historic and cultural heritage.

Along with the church, a baroque and rococo monument, Aglona has many cozy locations the place you possibly can sit with your loved ones. Having studied the foundations of Latgalian spelling together with the menu: Lyudzu! Kai dzelys? Vasala! Right here we selected holodnik, potato pancakes, and do-it-yourself chocolate cake. Every part was served virtually immediately, the applied sciences have been perfected, and there have been sufficient guests. Costs, by the way in which, are virtually Riga costs. You soak up it, and an exquisite breeze blows from Lake Cirišs. Properly, babble.



Stork on the roof - peace on earth.

Stork on the roof – peace on earth.

On the roof of the bus station there’s a stork with a pet, an emblem of nepotism, perched and as if patronizing Aglona. Not removed from the basilica, on the shore of a picturesque lake, there’s a life-giving spring.

It’s also possible to stroll alongside the Upursala Nature Path, the place there are 264 plant species. The title of the lake island is Upurkalns (Mountain of Sacrifice), harking back to merciless customs till the Catholics got here right here…



Jaunaglona: strangers don’t come right here

The story in regards to the holy place might be incomplete if we didn’t point out the social underbelly of recent Latgale: three kilometers from the basilica lies the village of Jaunaglona, ​​which is an actual ghost.

We noticed quite a lot of deserted issues right here – the complicated of a rural vocational faculty, and the varsity from the time of Ulmanis, and even a dam the place water roars from Lake Rušons. In these days there was an actual hydroelectric energy station right here, however a change within the financial system ruined life.



Signs in Latvian and Latgalian.

Indicators in Latvian and Latgalian.

Among the many tall grass you possibly can see collective farm-type homes product of sand-lime brick and picket buildings. Every part is uncared for, though the glass remains to be intact.

Who right here desires to return to Latvia, who has nowhere to remain? That is housing inventory for a whole lot of individuals. And for those who make investments sure funds in Jaunaglona, ​​you should have each “Younger Latvians” and, most likely, pilgrims to the basilica.

Picture by the writer.

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2024-06-15 15:03:47

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