Visokoe

Vysokoye – Belarusian backwoods with the taste of European Duchy.

Are you tired of noisy megapolises? Would you like to stroll through the quite streets of a small city? The town of Vysokoye, located in Kamenets region of Brest district is surely to win your heart! It is not at all abandoned and here and there dying out village, containing only one rural shop and a few street lamps. Since the 14th century the town has absorbed the smell of the well-known historical events and reserved the unsolved mysteries of castle estates of belarusian noblemen.

What is the difference between Vysokoye and numerous similar Belarusian villages?

In 1494 the township of Vysokoye was granted a Magdeburg right and its own coat of arms. It was the fourth city after Brest, Grodno and Slutsk.

At the beginning of the 18th century, a unique in its size and quantity of young plants orchard was located there-more than 700 trees. In spite of a mild climat the magnate family of Sapega were managed to grow laurel and fig, spanish box and yew tree. The famous noblemen pampered their guests with pomegranate, lemon, grapes and orange.

Nowadays, Belarusian-russian plant of Belovezhacheese productionis located in Vysokoye. Rokfeller himself would envy the smell and the taste of this production! Surely, it’s not Dutch cheese with mould, but the Belovezha cheese production technology is kept in a closely guarded secret.

Historical Scenes

Let’s go back to a few centuries ago. According to the chronicles, the township of Vysokoye has been knowned as “Vysokiy Gorod” since 14th century, a bit later you can meet the name Vysoko-Litovsk. That’s the name of this town till 1939.

In 1511 the king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Sigismund I the Old presents the city as a gift to Lithuanian marshal Yan Khreptovich. After a bit more than a century Andzhey Voina seizes the town, but soon decides to sell Vysokoye to Pavel Sapega. Since that moment the family of Sapega has owned the town for 200 years, after it the township belonged to the House of Potocki up to 1939.

However, that is far from all the history pages of the town of Vysokoye: at one time it belonged to Poland, the Russian Empire and was a part of BSSR. 

Let’s stroll through the bystreets of Belarusian Luxembourg

Travelling around the world, you subcontiously start to compare cities of different parts of the planet. If you’ve ever been to Luxembourg, then you are surely to find the similarities between this Europen city and the town of Vysokaye.

Calmness on the roads, absence of endless turmoil, unique colouring of local historic estates and fresh air of Kamenets parks make us feel some catharsis, both in soul and in mind. 

Strolling both through the major streets of the town and small nooks you can notice an amusing paradox: historic buildings of 17-20 centuries and ultra-modern buildings with colourful graffiti are preserved there.

The ruins of the old Sapegas’ castle, Palace and Park Ensemble of the Sapegas-Potockis, the Brothers Hospitallers monastery and Baroque Trinity Church won’t let indifferent any of the most experienced tourists.