Excursion «Here the History beats its wings»

Program

What has not collected in itself, as in a precious casket, this route! Temples of different confessions, castles, old mansions, monasteries and even the family tomb of the famous noble Umiastowski.

Ivye, which has lain to Hrodna highway, is sometimes called "little Jerusalem". It boasts the oldest active mosque in Belarus and the only Museum of national cultures. Here on the former market square there is a unique monument "Unity of four  confessions": Catholicism, Judaism, Orthodoxy and Islam. And as if in continuation of this theme of religious tolerance at the walls of the Church of St. Peter and Paul built in 1491 You will learn about the legendary Academy of Arians, which was one of the centers of education in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XVI century.

Then there comes the former town Subotniki, known since the XVII century. The red-brick Church Wladislaw (1904) fascinates with its graceful graphic silhouette. In the Shrine built by Wladyslaw and Janina Umiastowski was buried the founder, and then in the tomb were deposited the remains of his long dead relatives. It is reported by a memorial plaque installed in 1931 in the family burial place Umiastowski in the Church's crypt: very clean, shining polished edges solid marble slabs with names and dates.

The former estate of the Zhemyslavl is closely related to the counts Umiastowski too. The local Palace with Belvedere is a small copy of the Royal "Palace on the water", built for the last monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislaw August Poniatowski in Lasers near Warsaw. Around the estate, now waiting for a restoration, remain numerous outbuildings.

Fr om Zhemyslavl the road leads us in Traby. It is known since the XV century, when Prince Trabus built a castle here. Peter and Paul Church in Traby was built of wood in 1784 and significantly altered at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The local Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (1905) has a very picturesque silhouette which creates memorable image of a Gothic "mysticism."

Halshany in the past was a privately owned settlement of princes Halshansky (Olshansky). Of their kind occurred Sophia Halshanski – the wife of king Wladyslaw Jogaila, who became the founder of the Jagellon dynasty. From the XVI century the town was owned by the family of the princes Sapieha. In 1618, Pavel Stefan Sapieha began in Halshany the construction of a stone Church, a residential building of a Franciscan monastery, as well as an ancestral castle. Monastic buildings are now used as a functioning Church. The castle also came to the picturesque ruins. In Halshany remains the characteristic local buildings of XIX-XX centuries., which gives the present agro-town a special charm. The old road from Halshany leads to Baruny. Since 1691 the life of this former town was linked to the monastery, which became one of the spiritual centers of the Uniate Church in Belarus. Within its walls remains to this day the miraculous icon of the Mother of God Barunski. The monastery is distinguished by the sophistication of the forms of the Baroque of Vilna.

Finally, Kreva. Agro-town (formerly the estate of the Grand Duke) is known since the XIV century., when here was built the castle, wh ere in 1385 was concluded the famous Kreva Union. It lwas at the origin of the unification of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. In 1387 a wooden Church appeared in the town - in its place now stands the stone Church of the Transfiguration built in the 1990s. In front of it raises to the sky the Orthodox Church in the name St. Alexander Nevsky (1854). The picturesque ruins of the ancient castle are one of the brightest sights of Belarus.