The two-storied estate building, which was erected by Jesuits as a collegium in the XVIII century in Zhodishki, keeps many mysteries and secrets. But in order to get inside, it is necessary, literally, get mentally deranged. Ironically, the Regional Psychiatric Hospital is located now in the former temple of science, Jesuit College.

When the collegium was built

At the beginning of the XVIII century, a Jesuit monk Adam Mitskevich (should not to be confused with the poet!) persuaded his mother Barbara to give the place and five villages as well to the Jesuit Order. Barbara Mitskevich being from the Komarov kin in due time received Zhodishki in possession as a dowry. And she didn’t refuse the son.

In 1708, the monks opened a Jesuit College in Zhodishki. It was the seventh educational institution under the patronage of the Jesuit Fathers functioned on the territory of Belarus.

According to sources, the collegium started to fully function in 1709. The educational institution located in several wooden buildings connected with a gallery. The construction of a new brick building of the collegium began in 1757 and continued until 1770 (according to other sources, until 1766). A project of the collegium was designed by Professor Foma Zhabrovskih from Vilno. It’s hard to tell what the building looked like in reality, because it was rebuilt after a while.

Several facts about the an activity of the collegium

• The monks taught for free. Not only children of the Catholics could visit the collegium, but the children of the Orthodoxs as well.
• Elementary sciences, rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, German and French were taught at the collegium.
• In 1710, a library was opened there, in 1767 – a pharmacy. The Jesuits also practiced as doctors.

From Potocki to Milachevsky

General Potocki became the owner of that place and the collegium building after the Jesuit Order representatives were forced to leave Zhodishki. But it was not for long. Potocki resold Zhodishki to another Lithuanian military figure, Count Theodore Lascaris. He rebuilt the main building of the collegium into the estate house (perhaps it was then when a third floor was added to one of the parts).

In the middle of the XIX century, the house already belonged to Konstantin Milachevsky. According to documentary evidence, the new owner used only the frontal part as a residential premise. The rest of the building was in ruins – with no windows and roof.

The cells on the first floor were used as rooms for servants, and extensive cellars – as a farm store. Grain was stored in the refectory. It is known that the last estate owner was Bakshansky.

The health resort wasn’t made

The estate building underwent reconstructions later, but it withstood the Second World War and has been preserved to this day. In 1948, it was planned to rebuild it into a health resort. But it wasn’t created there. A psychiatric hospital moved into the building.

Architecture features

Now the estate house in Zhodishki is a two-storied brick building, covered with a hipped roof. The walls are decorated with narrow lesenes and carved with arched windows. The internal layout is in the shape of a gallery. Crossed arches are used as ceilings. The building has an arched basement.

The estate building is considered to be monument of Baroque architecture.