Schorsy

A small town with six hundred inhabitants is located in the Grodno region, not far from Novogrudok. The settlement became famous long time ago when the Xreptovich estate was built on its territory.

History

According to the Lithuanian metrics, since 1471 Schorsy belonged to the Hrabtovich family. There was a wooden Orthodox church. After signing the Union of Brest (Berestian uniya), it became the Greek Catholic church. The church was mentioned in written sources in 1627, but it was built much earlier in 1386 and was called the Holy Great Martyr Demetrios.

The above-mentioned wooden church was utterly burnt in 1758; a brick church was built in its place. Its construction was sponsored by the nobleman Hreptovsky. The restored church had an unusual form of a ship. Its architect was Italian G. de Sacco.

Giuseppe de Sacco became the main architect of the famous palace complex in this settlement. Joachim Hreptovich, the owner of this land at those times, ordered to build a gorgeous single-storey palace. There was a huge park, covered forty hectares around the palace. There were artificial ponds.

Being a bibliophile, Joachim Hreptovich collected a rich library in his estate. It included ancient manuscripts, maps, and rare book editions. There were more than twenty thousands of copies in his collection. There was a priceless correspondence of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Polish hetmans, the diary, which was written in the Polish Embassy in Russia (1686), the original document – manifest of Bohdan Khmelnytsky addressed to the Cossacks, and a diary of Marina Mniszek. In the XIX century, the estate was rather popular - Adam Mickiewicz, Vladislav Syrokomlya had been there, and at one time Jan Czeczot worked in the library.

The owner stood out for his progressive views: a hundred years before the historical abolition of serfdom, he treated his peasants like the abolition of serfdom already occurred. The settlement of Hreptovich was famous for the quality of manufactured products, and cheese, produced by Swiss cooks. The cheese was sent straight to St. Petersburg.

Unfortunately, the First World War destroyed the palace, and the large library was given to the University of Kiev. The estate was in dilapidated condition. After the Second World War, Schorsy became part of kolkhoz (a form of a collective farm in the Soviet Union). Today only the foundation of the palace is preserved, the left wing (there was the library) is well preserved.