Church of St. Michael

Belarus, Belarus

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The name “Church of St. Michael” in Belarus refers to several different historic churches, the most famous of which is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in the village of Synkavichy (Synkovichi) in the Zelva District of the Grodno region. This church is one of the earliest and largest examples of a fortified, defence-type church in Belarus and a masterpiece of Belarusian Gothic architecture, built either at the end of the 14th–early 15th century or in the 15th–16th century, with archaeological evidence pointing to a foundation around 1320 and a possible consecration in 1407 under Grand Duke Vytautas. It has massive stone walls up to 1.5 metres thick, four corner towers with spiral staircases, stone loopholes and rooms above the vaults, and combines a cross-domed Orthodox layout with Gothic elements such as a stepped gable, making it look more like a small castle than a typical church and placing it alongside the Muravanka church and the Kamai church as one of the very few buildings of worship of fortress type in Belarus.