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Wawrzyniec Gucewicz (; 1753 - 1798) was an 18th century architect born in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Because he was born in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and most of his works were built in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania•, Lithuanian scholars consider him the first professional Lithuanian architect.
In his early days he travelled to Italy and Paris and other countries of Western Europe, where he studied architecture from the notable contemporary French architects, Jacques-Germain Soufflot and Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Later he served as a professor at the Jesuit Academy of Vilna, the predecessor of the modern Vilnius University. Among the best known of his works are the refurbished Vilnius Cathedral, the town hall and the summer palace of bishops in Werki (Verkiai). The monumentality of forms and volume, the harmony with the environment and a special treatment of antique architectural forms are the characteristics of his style.
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Biography
Born in the village Migańce[As evidenced by the original baptismal record preserved in a local church: ; as cited in: ] () near Kupiškis, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. His father was a peasant named Simonas Masiulis [, yet was sometimes also called by the name of Stuoka after his stepfather][. His mother, Catherine Masiulis née Ziekonaycia ()][, died early in his youth and her relative and his godmother Anna Gucewicz née Baltušytė (), supported him and financed his studies. After her he inherited the surname of Gucewicz/Gucevičius. He attended local schools at Kupiškis and Palėvenė, and then the gymnasium (high school) at Panevėžys. In 1773 he joined the Academy of Vilnius under his Polish name, although most probably he also spoke Lithuanian][. He studied engineering, attended the lectures on architecture held by Marcin Knackfus][ ]. Around that time, he also became a missionary monk. He graduated in 1775, and in the following year received a royal scholarship from King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Along with a large number of other young Polish artists and architects of the time (among them Piotr Aigner, Szymon Bogumił Zug, Stanisław Zawadzki, Efraim Szreger and Jakub Kubicki), he went to Rome, where he spent a year studying the classical architecture[ ][. ]
In the following years he travelled through the countries of Western Europe, where he attended lectures on architecture and learned from the works of the most renowned architects of the time. He visited France, Denmark, Sweden and various German states[. Finally, he spent a year and a half studying in Paris under the guidance of Jacques-Germain Soufflot and Claude Nicolas Ledoux][. On his return, he was hired by Bishop Ignacy Jakub Massalski, for whom he designed and built the episcopal palace in Verkiai, later known after its later owners, the Wittgenstein family. The palace and the surrounding architectural complex, the work on which was commenced by Gucewicz's tutor Knackfus, is currently considered one of the most valuable classicist complexes in Lithuania][ ].
In 1789 Gucewicz became a professor of architecture and topography at the Artillery and Engineering Corps' School of Wilno. In 1794 he also returned to his Alma Mater, where he became a professor of civilian architecture[ and held the chair in engineering. In 1794, at the outbreak of Kościuszko's Uprising, Gucewicz joined the ranks of the local civil guard and took part in the Wilno Uprising against the Russian garrison. He also became one of the leaders of the local militia formed out of volunteers. Heavily wounded in a skirmish near Ašmiany (modern Belarus), he was demobilised. Following the Partitions of Poland, when Vilnius was annexed by Imperial Russia, the new authorities expelled Gucewicz from the academy for his part in the uprising. However, in 1797 he returned there, this time as a head of the newly-founded separate chair of architecture][ . ].
Around that time Gucewicz created the most renowned of his works. First was the new town hall of Wilno, completed around 1799[ ]. He also constructed a similar, yet smaller town hall in Widze near Bratslav (modern Vidzy, Belarus). Between 1777[Some sources mention 1783 as the starting date] and in 1801 he worked to rebuild the Vilnius Cathedral, founded by Vytautas the Great, (which had undergone many reconstructions, and had been partially Baroque), into what is now the Neoclassical Vilnius Cathedral. It is sometimes said, that his reconstruction of the cathedral, modeled after a Roman temple, pre-dated the work of Thomas Hamilton and James Playfair, two notable Scottish architects to introduce classicism in the United Kingdom[ ].
He is also credited with a number of other projects, although their actual authorship is not documented. Among them is the palace of the Tyzenhauz family in Rokiškis (completed in 1801), the reconstruction of the castle in Raudonė for its contemporary owner, Fario de Castro, and several merchant houses in Kretinga[, as well as the Čiobiškis manor house. He is also thought to have prepared projects of palaces for other notable magnate families of the time, including Radziwiłł, Sapieha, Pac, Chomiński and Scypion][, though the World War II losses in the preserved archives make the matter difficult to settle definitively][ ]. He was also the author of a topographic map of the western part of the city of Vilnius.
He died December 10, 1798 and was buried in the Rasos Cemetery, Vilnius, though knowledge of the exact burial location has been lost[{{lt icon}} Juozas Lebionka. ''Laurynas Gucevičius palaidotas Rasos'' (Laurynas Gucevičius is burried in Rasos). Voruta, No. 20 (542), 23 October 2003]. In his last will he dedicated all of his projects to the Polish nation and most of the surviving sketches and designs are currently held in the library of Warsaw University[ ].
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Trivia
The architect's life and creations inspired Lithuanian poet Justinas Marcinkevičius to write the drama of songs "The Cathedral".
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