Lahva is a small village in Luninets district in the east of Brest region. Here there is a railway station connecting the location  not only with the district center – Luninets but also with two region centers – Brest and Gomel.

 Today Lahva is a center of the town council, situated on the Smerd River bank, and it was a small town, which was first mentioned  in historical papers of 1493 in earlier times. It was here where the Temple of the God’s Mother Birth was constructed in 1824. The temple was made of wood on the place of the monastery existing as early as in the XVII century. The construction of the temple was funded by Princess Stephanie Radziwill. The temple of the first half of the XIX century has not come to our days.

And furthermore, the temple has not come to us in Lahva, it was consecrated in honor of Alexander Nevsky, and it was constructed as the Church of Holy Trinity also with the resources of the Radziwills in 1863.

And yet, there is an attraction deserving tourists’ attention – a church constructed in Lahva village in 1880. The new Temple of the God’s Mother Birth was made of brick, today it can be found in Rybhoznaya Street that has got its name due to the nearby fish farm “Lahva”.

At the time of the construction of the temple, its laity comprised a number of nearby locations including Lahovka, Lyuban, Ozyornitsa and Krasnaya Volya.

In architectural terms, the temple has a main volume in the form of a square with a semicircular apse attached to it. Two onion domes connect the catholicon with a rather massive tented belfry.

The temple has a highly decorated facade, on which one you can see cornices, corbel arches, portals, belts and other decorative fixtures that lend an elegant appearance to the temple. There is the hip roof crowned with five domes above the catholicon. The temple is painted in white highlighted by blue and yellow that makes the erection look airy.

Today there is a part of hallows of St. Manetha of Gomel (the secular name is Maria Skopicheva) inside the temple in Lahva. She was born in the spring of 1918 in the village of Sevruki not far from Gomel and  laid out her life to the church service. The hallows of the Saint are kept in Gomel St. Paul Cathedral in Lenin Square of the region center.

The Saint’s Day – the God’s Mother Birth – is celebrated on 21 September (8 September, O.S.) and presents the birthday of the Virgin Mary whose parents were Anne and Joachim who lived in Jerusalem. Today the orthodox  monastery of St. Anne stands on the place of the Virgin Mary’s birth. On its first floor, there is the functioning Temple of the God’s Mother Birth, under which is a grotto that earlier was a part of the house of the Virgin Mary’s family.

There is a book shop at the temple. Anyone can buy religious literature here. The bought book can be a reminder of the visit to the temple for a tourist.