Nauji architektūros istorijos šaltiniai: architektas Juozapas Fontana
In search of new sources of the history of architecture: architect Giuseppe Fontana

Summary/Abstract: The present paper is dedicated to the publication and discussion of a document that has not yet appeared in scholarly circulation and historiography, namely the construction agreement of the Vitebsk Bernardine Church of St. Anthony, which is held in the National History Archive of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk. The agreement was made on 10 February 1742 in Vilnius (and enacted on 15 December 1744 at the Chancellery of the Castle Court in Vitebsk) with the participation of Giuseppe Fontana and the endower of the Vitebsk Bernardine Convent, the wife of the Vitebsk Voivode Marcjan Michał Ogiński, Tekla Anna Ogińska. The historical circumstances of this commission and its significance for the professional career of architect Giuseppe Fontana are revealed. The agreement under discussion not only testified to Fontana’s authorship, but also revealed the main reason why he chose the north-eastern lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his residence and professional activity. The acquaintance with the Ogiński family that belonged to the ruling elite and its patronage opened for the architect the prospects of work in the territory of Vitebsk and the neighbouring voivodeships. Fontana’s creative legacy allows us to assess the architect’s contribution to the development of architecture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 18th c. and assert that along with Johann Christoph Glaubitz he was one of the most productive and famous architects of his time.

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