The Tomb of Stanislaw II August Poniatowski in the Village of Volchin, Brest Region 

The village of Volchin is situated in the Kamenets district of the Brest region. It is known to tourists around the world mainly thanks to the Trinity Church, a late Baroque monument built in 1733. The Tomb of Stanislaw II August Poniatowski is also known as a monument of culture and architecture. It was the last Polish king, who reigned from 1764 to 1795. The village of Volchin is his small homeland. The great ruler was born here and baptised in the Trinity Church.

History of Reign and Love

The handsome man was in close relations with Empress Catherine II. Thanks to her efforts, Stanislaw II August Poniatowski became a king of the Rzeczpospolita and ruled the country for thirty years. All that time, the Polish state was under the protectorate of the Russian Empire. And Catherine, according to historians, was the love of the entire life of the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Although a dream of a legitimate marriage did not come true.

In 1772, a secret treaty between Austria, Russia and Prussia was signed in the city on the Neva, which led to the first division of the Rzeczpospolita. When the revolution flared up in France, the Empress decided to change the borders of Poland again. Later, Catherine II managed to suppress the uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, which occurred for this reason. When Warsaw was captured by the rebels, Stanislaw August Poniatowski moved to Grodno and abdicated in his new palace. When the third division of the Rzeczpospolita took place, this state, one might say, disappeared forever from the world map. The great ruler spent his last years in St. Petersburg, where he died in February 1798. He was buried with all the honours in the Cathedral of St. Catherine.

History tells us that the corpse of Stanislaw August rested in this cathedral until 1938. The Soviet authority offered the Polish bourgeois to return the embalmed corpse of the king to his homeland. A coffin with the remains of the ruler was reburied in the crypt of the Trinity Church in Volchin. The village was part of Poland at that time.

History and Architecture of the Monument

The exterior of the Trinity Church is interesting and unusual. The history of the building is also interesting. When the uprising of 1863-1864 was defeated, the Catholic church in Volchin was re-equipped. In 1918, it returned to the Catholics. During the Great Patriotic War, the church was destroyed and ravaged, and after the war, fertilisers and pesticides were stored in the building of the church. In the 70s of the XX century, the building was in bad condition. As a result, the church was closed.

The church returned to religious believers in 2007 when its restoration began. Today it is completed. The Trinity Church is again majestic and beautiful, brings joy to parishioners, serves as a place where you can calm your soul. The tomb of Stanislaw II August Poniatowski is included in the State List of the historical and cultural heritage of the Republic of Belarus.