It is interesting that the newly rebuild churches can have rather short but interesting histories. It occurs more often if they were constructed on the place of their more ancient foregoers. The same was with the Church of St. Peter and Paul situated in Drisvyaty village of Vitebsk region’ Braslav district.

Before and after the construction

Originally, the local church of the todays’ village of Drisvyaty had another location – on the nearby island that was called Zamok. The precise date (and even century) of the construction of the former church remains unknown – only one thing is clear that it was destroyed in the early XVII century when Zamok was engulfed in flames.

The surrounding areas were in possession of the famous dynasty of the Sapegas at the time; they ordered to move the main sanctity of the “island” church – an icon – to the bank, in order to attach it to the new constructed church.

However, the construction was delayed due to the coming wars and battles. The modern version of the Church of St. Peter and Paul appeared only in the 30-s of the last century. By the way, many historians assign to it the unique and rare architectural concept – truly Belarusian style.

The architect and ideological inspirer was L. Vitan-Dubeykovsky who involved his students in the work. He was a true genius who was aspired to elevate the status of the Belarusian architecture from the local branch of more famous styles to something more unique and isolated.

By the way, a number of rumors appeared during the construction of the Church of St. Peter and Paul. One of them was especially remarkable – it is thought that human remains of abnormal size were found on the place of the future trenches. For example, the length of a lower leg was about 1.5 meters.

The features of the church

When, at last, the construction of the Church of St. Peter and Paul was finished, that didn’t mean the beginning of golden days. The matter is that the Soviet government, as it is known, was not always in favor of Catholic sanctities. The church was closed in the 1970-s, and the storage was located inside.

The local residents tried to restore the church to its former purpose for a long time; and only in 1991 the Church of St. Peter and Paul was returned to fold of the Catholic Church. Certainly, the church required restoration and renovation that had been finished by 1994.

The icon that was brought from the island deserves special attention. Art experts have removed top layers (there have been 4 of them) and have seen an original work of artists of the XVI century (slightly modified by the artists of the XVI-XVII centuries).

It is interesting that the considerable part of the picture was damaged, particularly the face of one of the wise men in the course of the First World War.