The town of Ivanovo has been known since the 14^th century. It was called Porhovo at that time. In 1423, as historical chronicles say, the great prince of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Vitovt gave these lands to the cathedral in Lutsk.  And the bishop Yan Laskovich decided to rename it into Yanov in 1465. The town was developing very fast due to hard work of the local people and wide spreading of crafts.

Nowadays it’s a vital city. There are a lot of amazing architectural constructions. One of these is the monument in honor of Napoleon Orda that you can find in the city centre at the crossing of Sovetskaya and Lenin streets. This monument is set up in a picturesque place. There is a willow that symbolizes contribution to Belarusian heritage of this amazing person.

Napoleon Orda (1807-1883) is a great musician, teacher and painter who lived in Belarus and Poland. Thanks to his works young people can see on the pictures luxurious palaces of the past époque that don’t exist today. This wonderful man was born in Vorotsevichi village, Pinsk district of Minsk region. His parents were engineers. He studied in Svisloch high school and after that entered Vilna University but he didn’t finish it. Napoleon was excluded for the participation in a secret student community “Zaryane”.

Nowadays our generation can see this beautiful monument. It was set in 1997. The great son of the Belarusian land was sculpted by Igor Golubev. The monument looks unusual: sitting on a stump, the famous painter is busy with a plot of the next picture with a sketch on the paper. He looks very alive.

He died in Warsaw and according to his will Napoleon was buried at the ancient catholic graveyard in the family crypt in Ivanovo. There is an honorable plate on the grave of the famous countryman.

Napoleon Orda is considered to be the pride of Belarusian culture. Though his name was very popular in Europe, it wasn’t known in Belarus quite recently.

Ivanovo is the heart of Polesye. It’s rich with original talents and people. Every year there are a lot of tourists who would like to visit these historical and original places.