Geographical location

The village of Korolev Stan refers to Borovlyany village Council, Minsk district. The village is 10 km drive from the Belarusian capital on Minsk-Smolevichi route.

Historical information

No prize for guessing that the name of the village has something to do with the rest of kings as in Russian its name sounds like “Kings Camp”. In this case we are talking about the grandees of the Polish Commonwealth. The exact date when the village was founded remains unknown. According to some information, it could be in the years of the XVIII century, since Korolev Stan was mentioned as the property of Radziwill family in 1800.

The population

According to recent reports there are 867 people in the village.

Attractions

The background to the construction of Holy Cross Church is very interesting. Initially in the nineteenth century, the center of religious life in the village was a small wooden temple, which was located near the local cemetery. The temple was erected in honor of St. George Victorious, and it was assigned to assumption parish of Krestogory. In 1876 the Church building was deemed dilapidated. They made a decision to replace it with another wooden building; its construction had been going on for a year, from 1876 to 1877. Seven icons for the iconostasis were purchased for 35 silver rubles (which were the donation of the peasants) by Kiev merchant Vasily Pleskonosov,. Three years later, Minsk spiritual Consistory issued a decree to build a bell tower near the Church, and that was done: a wooden building was built on a stone foundation to house the bells. The temple itself was a log house with a shingle roof, decorated with two domes.

After the establishment of Soviet power, St. George Church, like many churches in Belarus, was destroyed. It happened in 1936.

However, at the end of the XX century, state power became more loyal to the Church, and a new temple was built in Korolev Stan at the request of local residents. First, on the 29^th of November 1991, about a hundred believers of the local residents organized a meeting which resulted in the formation of the parish in honor of the Holy Cross Exaltation. Then the Statute of the parish was registered by Minsk regional executive Committee.

At first, supervising of the construction and operation of the parish was assigned to the priest Anatoly Magomedovich Ibragimov by the decree of Minsk and Slutsk Metropolitan. Initially services were held in a military tent camp next to the building of the temple, and in 1996 the service was conducted in the Church in the context of the ongoing construction works.

At the end of 1996 after finishing the construction of the Church its first Abbot was appointed. He was a graduate from Minsk Theological Seminary, priest Vitaly Anatolievich Kharitonovich. In September 1998 the Church in the village of Korolev Stan was visited by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II. In 2002, the Church was set on fire by two local residents. Only the altar, the gospel and Epistles, as well as the icon of the resurrection of Christ managed to survive after strong fire.

Currently a new Church is being constructed; it is going to be larger in size together with attached presbytery. Nevertheless, a visit to the village Korolev Stan causes a lot of impressions. The spirit of an ancient past, rooted in the Orthodox religion, is in the air of this unique village.