The village of Kroshin is rather small but has a rich history that big district centers can envy. It is situated in the district of Baranovichi of Brest region, and first of all it is famous for its church which history is of no less interest.

The predecessors

In the first half of the XV century, in 1442 particularly, in the village of Kroshin the first wooden church appeared, it immediately became a religious and educational center of the district. Worship services were held there by well-trained and talented priests fr om the beginning.  A lot of historians point out the name of Voitzeh amongst them.

Like many other wooden buildings of that period, the church had existed for a short time especially due to regular invasions of enemies and conquerors.  The first variant of the church was destroyed during the war between Russia and Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The second church, again wooden, was constructed in Kroshin in 1628, but it was also burnt in 1791. However, up to that time, it had got an important function – educational. During 11 years before its destruction, there had been a parochial school wh ere such famous persons had been head teachers and priests as Malinovsky and Garbatsevich. When the former teacher of M. Radzivill-Magnushevsky - became a priest of the school, he began to take part in the life of the Kroshin educational institution. The school had existed up to 1831.

Immediately after the fire, in the same year, the church was restored, almost of the same type and in the same place. And only after its destruction during the period of the First World War it was agreed to build a brick Catholic Church in Kroshin.

The recent history

The modern Corpus Christi Church was constructed in the 20-30-s of the last century. Neo-Gothic style popular at that time was chosen as the principal architectural style. But the main features attracting attention of many people are not in the exterior.

You can find survived elements of the Catholic cemetery within the church. There is a genuine archetype of the authentic local art, the work of the native of Kroshin Pavlyuk Bagrim, under the arches.  This is a ceiling lamp or, more precisely, a hand crafted girandole of crude iron and bronze. The work was made in 1881 (which is certified by the inscription on one of the rings), and it was kept in the house of the customer, artist and collector Peter Svyatopolk-Zavadsky for a long time. The family handed over the work of the local genius to the church after his death.

What is so remarkable about that ceiling lamp? Despite such heavy weight raw materials, it looks rather light and airy due mainly to its special lace design and the figures of larks and flowers at the top.

Apart from the girandole, the fellow countrymen of the national talent memorialized him on the walls of the church. There you can read the only famous poem written by Pavlyuk Bagrim and translated into English and Polish so that the whole special atmosphere of the erection will follow foreign visitors wherever they go.