Stone Building Center in Ivje

The geographical position

Ivje is a small town of the Grodno region situated 158km from the region center and 136km from the capital of Belarus.

The historical reference

Ivje is first mentioned in manuscripts of 1444. There is a legend that the town got its name after Prince Gedemin’s wife Eva.

The population

Today the population of Ivje is 7712 people.

The attractions

Despite its small sizes the town Ivje is rather rich in attractions. Take, for example, the stone building center of the town! Structures that today are in Lenin, Marks and the 1st of May st refer to the late XIX – early XX centuries. The merchants’ rows deserve special attention. The stone-made structure was erected at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries and was situated in the center of the local trading square. The rectangular building was covered with a gable roof. The attic outlined with horizontal cornices made the merchants’ rows look laconic. The structure was intended for shopping stalls. With the course of time the architectural planning of the merchants’ rows changed but they functioned up to 2010.

The stone attractions of the center of Ivje include the Church of St Peter and Paul. The building was constructed on the site of the former temple of Gothic architecture. It was burnt during war actions in the middle of the XVII century. That made it necessary to construct a stone building. That proved to be the case, and in 1787 the new temple was consecrated. Today the church presents a building with three naves. From one side the quadrangular catholicon has a presbytery and a polyangular apse. From the southern side of the building there is an apse. Here it is added with buttresses. From the northern side of the temple there is a chapel. The walls of the church went down into the basement almost one meter deep under the ground. Near the church there is another equally interesting attraction – a statue of Christ installed in Ivje in 2002 on the proposal of local priests. It seems to be a miniature of the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro; however, there are a lot of differences between the monuments, yet there is an important likeness in the manner how the statue “embraces” the whole town if to look at it from backside.

The important architectural monument in Ivje is a complex of structures belonging to the synagogue. Before the Revolution about one and hath thousand Jews lived in Ivje. On the board that has preserved on one of the buildings of the complex it is said that in May 1942 Jews accounted for 76% of the total population of the town. The building of the synagogue was constructed in the late XVIII century. The rectangular building has a strict appearance; the facade lacks any decorative fixtures. The window openings are arc-shaped with simple trims. In the early 1900 the synagogue as severely destroyed in fire; the building was restored only after the Second World War. However the cult building was given to the town authorities that established there a sports hall.