Gegrėnai Church

The wooden Gegrėnai Jesus of Nazareth Church was built by Mykolas Venslauskis in 1754 on the private territory of Nobleman Venslauskis. The church, funded and maintained by the Venslauskis family, served as a part of the Samogitian Calvary parsonage. The parson at that moment was Vincentas Gimbutis.

In 1776, the Venslauskis family gave 1 volok and 8 margas of land to the church. Moreover, they also promised to provide timber (as fuel) to the priest and to renovate or to rebuild the church, if it is deemed necessary.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the Gegrėnai Church wooden walls were starting to rot. Mažutevičius, a Dominican and emeritus, took care of the reconstruction of the church. This was done by the present owners of the Gegrėnai Manor, namely Stanislovas Venslauskis and Juzefa Venslauskienė. The church was rebuilt on the basis of the old one and it even was of the same form. A metal cross, which is in the shape of the sun and which has a coat of arms of the Venslauskis family on it, is placed on the front dome. A belfry and a new parsonage were built in 1882 and in 1888 respectively.

In 1926, the church owned 30 acres of land. The Brotherhood of the Holy Sacrament, a branch of the Brotherhood of Apostleship of Prayer, and a branch the Lithuanian Women’s Fellowship were established here. In 1927, all of the altars were renovated with the 500 LTL that priest Jurgis Rupka has donated to the church. The Gegrėnai parish was established in 1940. After the war, the population dwindled and the priest no longer lived in Gegrėnai. The Samogitian Calvary priests now serve the believers of this parish.

The Gegrėnai Jesus of Nazareth Church is considered to be an archaic sacral piece of architecture. It is a small, rectangular building with a three-walled apse and a sacristy on the right side. In 1850, a second sacristy was built, symmetrical to the first one. The façade has no towers, but smaller sinuous towers can be found on the shingle roof of the church. Before the reconstruction, the Gegrėnai Church had three towers, two of which were at the end of the façades, and one, the biggest of them all and the only one that was painted, was situated in the middle of the ridge of the roof. The rectangular windows are decorated with a semi-circular arch. The interior of the church is moderate. A rare and original element of the interior is the small foundational boxes, which open up into the apse and which are located above the sacristy.

The layout of the church, interior spaces, and facilities did not change much, despite the fact that the church underwent many renovations throughout its lifetime. Ever since the construction of the church, three wooden Baroque-style altars have always stood there: one main altar for Jesus of Nazareth and two side altars. An organ can also be found in the church. It was built by craftsman Martynas Masalskis in 1908. The wooden organ pipes were made in Masalskis’ workshop, while the metal ones were most probably purchased in Germany.

Sources: Plungės dekanato sakralinė architektūra ir dailė / compiled by A. Butrimas et al. – Vilnius: The Vilnius Academy of Arts, 2005. – p. 765-766.
Mūsų Lietuva / compiled by B. Kvyklys. – Chicago, 1989–1991. – T. 4, p. 66.