Dribin

The urban-type settlement of Dribin is one of the youngest towns of Mogilev region. It has a small number of inhabitants. Nowadays, only 3 thousand people live in Dribin.

A small town is situated on the bank of the Pronya river. The first written mention of Dribin dates back to 1569.

As the town is located close to the border with Russia, wars and destruction prevented it fr om developing.

Dribin was granted the status of an urban-type settlement in 1997.

There is something to see in this small town. Attention of tourists is attracted by the most ancient Transfiguration Church. It was built in the 1940s. However, the church was utterly destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. But the residents built a small church, reminiscent of a rural house. In 2012, the church was reconstructed; the reconstruction lasted for 14 years.

In addition to the church, an ancient Jewish cemetery has been preserved to present days.

An ethnographic museum was created in Dribin. Long ago, this town was famous for its makers of felt boots. The museum has many exhibits of this ancient craft. But even now many residents are engaged in making felt boots according to ancient traditions. History says that long ago, when Dribin was a farm, its owner began to invite everyone to settle in his lands to increase the population. It happened that people came from those places wh ere the felting production had already been developed. Settled in Dribin, they continued to do their work, and other residents began to master skills of this craft. It turned out that felt boot making became Dribin's business card.

According to another legend, the former owner of the estate, Otton Tsekhonovalsky, sent several residents to Nizhny Novgorod region to study felting. When coming back, they trained other residents.

A mass grave reminds about the events of the Great Patriotic War. 508 soldiers who defended the town from the Nazi German invaders were buried here. In 1984, a monument was erected on the grave - the sculpture of a soldier with a gun and walls around him, on which the names of the dead are listed.

Traditionally, the festival "Dribinskie Torzhki" is held in the town in the first week of August. Tourists and locals can attend master classes by craftsmen of different techniques, taste delicious national dishes. There is a hotel in the town which is called "Dribin".

Despite its youth, Dribin attracts tourists. It is here the oldest crafts survived to the present day.