Ogarevichi

Gantsevichi area, where the village of Ogarevichi is situated, is famous not only for the number of architectural and cultural monuments, but also for their good state. The city, which has given the name to the area, is relatively young (it is about a century), but there are fifty historical and cultural values at the same time on its territory. The small village of Ogarevichi is located seven kilometers away from the district center, known for the manor of the Svezhinsky-Opatsky family.

The former estate: the Past and the Present

The former estate of the Svezhinsky-Opatsky family  is located in the heart of Ogarevichi. Now the hotel-tourist complex "Visiting Pani"  is located on its territory.

The wealthy Svezhinsky family was the first owner of the village and the estate of Ogarevichi. The family, who had a coat of arms "Poray", gained possession in distant 1697. When the mansion was built is still not clear, it’s allegedly called as the middle of the XIXth century. The counting is carried out since 1911, when the building was completely rebuilt by the last hosts from a sort of the Opatsky family of the emblem "Prus". They finished building the estate, built a stable and a strong building of the barn made of red brick. In 1939, when Gantsevschina became part of the USSR, the Opatsky family was expelled from the family nest, and the manor was ruined. A mistress of the estate was exiled to Siberia. Her children, last of the kind, Irina and Mary moved to Poland, traces of their brother Bronislaw were lost.

The keeper of the estate, Galina Kulikovskaya, voiced another version. One of the old-timers of Ogarevichi told her that Bronislaw’s lover have remained at home. Therefore, being able to escape to Poland, after some time, he returned to his beloved to Ogarevichi, took her last name and lived all his life, without revealing the secrets of his origin to anyone.

Even after so many years, the descendants of the clan tend to their homeland. Irina Svezhinskaya, who moved from Poland to the UK and lived there all her life, made an attempt to visit the native land at the beginning of the XXI century, but got seriously ill on the road and was forced to return to the UK and did not realize her dream. Not long ago, and the other descendants of the Svezhinsky family visited the estate - Krzysztof Svezhinsky and his son Robert, who immersed themself in the study of their family tree.

The Manor nowadays!

In 1911, the complex included a wooden palace, stone buildings of the stables and the barn, a park, picturesque ponds and the entrance gate on the pillars of stone. The manor-house - a small one-storey building with fourteen rooms, L-shaped, with a semicircular rotunda on the east side. In the semi-rotunda, there was a winter garden beautifully overgrown with wild grapes.

The park, adjacent to the estate, is much older than the house. Despite its small size, it stood out the original plan in the form of two bosquets - the wooden walls. The central park path is decorated in an interesting way, using colorful flowers planted along it. The symmetrical composition of the park has been greatly compromised after its reconstruction, but the system of ponds, connected by bridges, ancient trees, the entrance avenue, planted with elms and limes, still amaze with the magnificence.