Mosty

MOSTY: WHAT, WHERE, WHEN?

The town with the unusual name of "Mosty" is a town that is located in the western part of Grodno region at the confluence of the Neman river and the Zelvianka river. It isn’t big. Its population on January 1, 2015 was 33.3 thousand people. Total area is 1.4 thousand sq. km.

WHY MOSTY?

The most recognizable place in the town Mosty, as you probably guessed, is the bridge. But it is not just a bridge; it is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Belarus. It’s one and a half meters wide and 193 meters long. There are seven bridges in the town if you count the small one across Zelvianka and the railway bridge. Nevertheless, the name of the town was not given for those bridges.

At first it was called Fabrichny due to Konopatskiye brothers’ plywood factory. After a while there was a need in differentiation and designation on which side of the river was a particular object. That is how the vernacular name appeared: "Left Mosty" and "Right Mosty", to indicate what is on the left and on the right bank. The town began to be called Fabrichnye mosty.

But still the town has a legend of its name. It states: since its appearance every spring Neman has overflowed with such force that from each porch of each house bridges were led to the street and they were connected to each other and along which people moved waiting until the water subsides.

MOSTY WASN’T BUILT AT ONCE - HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Mosty cannot be called a young town. The first time it is mentioned in the chronicle at the end of the XV century in 1486. However, this year cannot clearly be called the town's foundation year because at that time it was a big settlement already that arose at the crossroads of trade routes: water (Neman) and land (Brest - Vilnius).

To find out more about the town became possible from the audit in 1561. There is a description of the city in the book scribe belonging to Grodno province. There were 9 streets and more than 100 houses on both sides of the Neman in Mosty.

The town Mosty received Magdeburg right and was already the county center in the XVII century. In the next century as a result of the third partition of Poland the territory of the town became part of the Russian Empire.

Industry began to develop in Mosty at the beginning of the XIX century: lemonade and worsted enterprise, copper-processing factory, a shipyard had opened.

During the War of 1812, Mosty was badly damaged by French troops: the buildings were burned, the population was looted. However, after the enemy’s expulsion town quickly recovered.

During the First World War, Mosty was occupied by German troops, afterwards by Polish. As a result, Mosty became part of Poland, and only in 1939 the town became part of the BSSR.

The town was occupied by the German army again from June 1941 to July 1944.

WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO SEE?

Due to its history, changing countries, part of which it was, the town Mosty has become a real center, the center of magnificent historical monuments. It is literally surrounded by Catholic and Orthodox churches. There are Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Nicholas Church in the village Peski. And Church of St. Anne and the Church of St. John the Baptist in the village Lunno. Church of the Holy Trinity in the village Strubitsa and many other architectural monuments. They are very diverse and made in different styles: the imprint of different cultures and religions gives the impression that you visit different countries and not the same town.

In addition, it is possible to visit the archaeological monuments: the parking lot of the Neolithic era, the Neman culture and Bronze Age. Landscape reserve with 200 year old oak groves has been working since 2002.