Numerous tourists from all over the world prefer to visit Kobrin for various purposes - religious, cultural or historical. No wonder but in spite of the small size of the town itself, here are located quite a lot of interesting objects including the Church of St. Nicholas, the temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Monastery of the Savior, the Cathedral of St. A.Nevsky. So let’s talk about one of them.   

The Catholic Shrine

In Kobrin, like in many other cities of Belarus, lived before and live today quite a lot of followers of the Catholic faith. This is confirmed by the fact that in 1513 was built the first local Catholic Church, made of wood. The initiator and main sponsor was the well-known A. Kobrinskaya-Kostevich.

The wooden building was often exposed to damage and fires, caused by numerous wars. Then the parishioners decided to collect funds for the construction of a more solid stone structure. After the approval of such a construction in 1840, the new Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary opened its doors in 1843. The architect in this case was a talented Noskov.

A traditional consecration took place in 1851 by the forces of Vilnius Bishop Wenceslaus Zulinsky.

The history of the temple in the 19-20^th centuries

Despite the fact that many Catholic and Orthodox churches on the territory of Belarus were closed during the Great Patriotic War, the Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary did not cease its functioning and reception of the parishioners up to 1962, when Soviets came to power. However we can say that the architectural structure was pretty lucky: it was saved from the destruction because the famous and respected at the time artist named Napoleon Orda, visiting the surroundings of Kobrin in 1864, was impressed by the grandeur and originality of the Catholic Church and even created a few paintings with its image, having perpetuated it forever.

Until 1990 the Church was closed to the parishioners, but at their numerous requests it re-opened its doors. However, this required a significant reconstruction, which was made on money gathered by the parishioners. The restoration was carried out by a large urban bilding company “Energopol”.

Features of the Church

1)      Nowadays on the territory of Kobrin there are no any Catholic churches, except the Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

2)      The main attraction of the interior is a venerated by numerous parishioners miraculous icon of the Savior.

3)      In the autumn of 2008 in the cemetery near the walls of the Church took place the ceremonial reburial of the Polish soldiers and officers dead in 1939.

4)      Not far from the Catholic Church is located another local attraction – the ruins of the Jewish synagogue.

5)      In Brest region there is another Catholic church with the same name, located in the city of Pinsk.

Today a visit to Kobrin, including a tour of the Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is included in a number of educational and pilgrimage tours around Belarus, the most popular of which is the tour “Kobrin – Belovezhskaya Puscha – Brest”.