Grodno
The city where the polish king abdicated
Grodno or in russian Hrodna is a city on the border to Poland. In history it is important since the last polish king Stanislav August Poniatovsky abdicated at the new castle in 1795 (Present day Poland was founded after world war 1 in 1918). The city often held the former countries parliament and was an important city. Today its a cosy sleepy city still living in the times of communism
Cultural Palace
drama theatre
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Grodno Regional Drama Theatre was founded in October 1947. The first theatrical season opened on October 20, 1947 with the play "Truth is well, but happiness is better" by Ostrovsky.
Since 1984, the theater operates in the present building. The building was designed by the Moscow research organization in the field of theater architecture in the USSRs Ministry of Culture - called "Giproteatr." The architect was Gennady Machulsky. The main entrance is decorated with a sculptural group called "Pegasus" by sculptor Leonid Zilber. Sculpture pictorial compositions and murals that adorn the foyer of the large and small halls are made by artists Irina Lavrova, Igor Pchelnikova and Vladimir Nekliudov. |
Eternal flame
Holy Cross church
The church was erected 1595-1618 and is the cities first catholic church. The complex was beside the Church an Bernadine monastery. A wooden monastery was founded in 1494 or 1495, on land donated by the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Alexander Jagiellon Bernardine Order (Franciscans). The stone monastery was erected with the permission of King Sigismund III.
The appearance of the complex carries the features of Gothic (apse), Renaissance and Baroque. The interior is dated XVII-XVIII centuries. In the XVIII century the upper tiers of the bell tower of the church were built in Vilnius Baroque style. In the same period, the main facade was rebuilt on the model of the Roman church Il Gesu. Since 1990 its catholic again |
hrodnA (grodno) railway station
New Hrodna Castle
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The New Castle is a royal palace of Augustus III of Poland and Stanisław August Poniatowski where the famous Grodno Sejm took place in 1793. Grodno Sejm was the last Sejm (session of parliament) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in fall of 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Lithuania (now Hrodna, Belarus) is infamous because its deputies, bribed or coerced by the Russian Empire, passed the act of Second Partition of Poland. The Sejm started on 17 June and ended on 23 November 1793. It ratified the division of the country in a futile attempt to prevent its subsequent complete annexation two years later in the 1795 Third Partition of Poland.
The royal residence was built on the high bank of the Neman River at a little distance from the Old Hrodna Castle which had suffered great dilapidation in the aftermath of the Swedish occupation in the early 18th century. The two castles are joined by a 300-year-old arch bridge. The palace compound was designed by Carl Friedrich Pöppelmann. Construction was carried out between 1734 and 1751 under the supervision of several other Saxon architects, including Johann Friedrich Knöbel and Joachim Daniel von Jauch who buil a chappel. The palace was completed under the direction of Giuseppe de Sacco in 1789 and remained home for King Stanisław II August until 1797. Used as a hospital and barracks throughout most of the 19th century, the palace was renovated by the Polish administration in the interwar period. Scarcely anything is left of the original fabric of the castle, whose refined Rococo detailing vanished during World War II. There followed a hasty and rather superficial refurbishing of the palace by the Soviets with a view to making it the headquarters of a local obkom. The present building opened 1952 and was build by B Varasina. It is a museum of local history. A plaque on the wall of the palace commemorates the council of war held in the royal residence by Tadeusz Kościuszko on 30 October 1794. |
Old Grodno Castle
The Old Grodno Castle (also known as the Grodno Upper Castle and Bathory's Castle) originated in the 11th century as the seat of a dynasty of Black Ruthenian rulers, descended from a younger son of Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev.
The 13th-century keep of the castle belonged to a type of Belarusian defensive tower represented by the Tower of Kamyanyets. Vytautas the Great added five Brick Gothic towers in 1391-98, transforming the castle into one of his main residences. Casimir IV Jagiellon also favoured Hrodna over Lithuania's official capital. It was there that the Polish Crown was offered to him, and it was there that he died in 1495. The next notable tenant of the castle was Stephen Báthory who envisaged Hrodna as the capital of his vast empire in Eastern Europe. He engaged Scotto of Parma to replace the Vytautas Castle with his own residence in the advanced Renaissance taste of Northern Italy. After Bathory's death in Hrodna in 1586, his pet project was abandoned. The citadel was devastated by the Russians during a Russo-Polish War in 1655. The castle's revival was owing to Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac who raised sufficient funds to finance the refurbishing of the royal residence. The restored castle was selected by King Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki of Poland as the location for every third Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The castle suffered extensive damage during the Great Northern War, forcing the royal court to move into the New Hrodna Castle. After the partitions of Poland the castle was given over to the Russian army and housed a barracks. The authorities of interwar Poland restored the chamber of the ambassadors and the Sejm Hall. At present the castle is classed as a museum. |
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Sovetskaya street
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The pedestrian street Sovetskaya fully justifies Grodno glory as tidy city. Street lined with two- and three-storey buildings mostly frome the nineteenth century and paved with cobblestones. It has many cafes with outdoor areas, decorated with wrought iron lanterns and flowers. The length of the street is 455 meters, but it starts right from Soviet square, which also has a pedestrian zone length of about 300 meters.
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St. Basil's Cathedral
The Cathedral is build in honor of the Holy Virgin - it is the Orthodox Cathedral of Grodno.
Erected in brick in 1904-1905 by the architect Mikhail Prozorov, the cathedral was built in memory of the officers and lower ranks of the 26th Artillery Brigade, fighting during the Russian-Japanese war. Construction management was entrusted to the engineer Captain Savelyev. Consecration of the church took place on September 30, 1907. In terms of the temple, built in the style of Russian retrospective, it was a Length of the nave basilica with five-sided apse and side vestries. Vertical accent characteristic of the north-west of the main facade of the cathedral, which is characterized by a 10-meter octagonal belfry with hipped domes flanking the drum and bell tower, creating a symmetrical composition of the facade with small onion-domed tents, as well as with innovative semicircular windows. |
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St. Francis Xavier Cathedral
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The construction of the church started in 1687. The completed building in Baroque style was consecrated in 1705 to St. Francis Xavier. The monastery was dissolved in 1773 and the church became a parish one. The church survived the second world war with no serious damage.
In 1960 it was officially closed for a public religious services (for 27 years). The communist authorities tried to convert the building into a museum or a concert hall. Despite this the people attended the church every Sunday for a common player, songs and rosary. The religious services were restored in 1987. In 1990 the church was granted the title of minor basilica, and a year later it became a cathedral for a diocese of Grodno. |
St. Martha church
It was built and is attributed to St. Sophia Cathedral (St. Mary's Church, Grodno) in 1848. The mother of Bishop Neil Martha Noskovich was buried here - evidenced by the inscription on the plate on the east side of the temple.
An architectural monument of late classicism. The building is cruciform in plan. At the ends of the side wings and the apse are triangular pediments. Plastered walls encircled the eaves, dissected high arched window openings with Archivolt. On the side of the main facade was attached to a square cross-section 2-tiered bell tower, covered with gentle 2-pitched roof with the top. At the 1st tier of the arched doorway of the main entrance, 2nd floor dormer cut circular openings and beamed to the bells. To lower the sacristy apse attached. In the ceiling flat ceiling prayer hall are the wooden choir with balustrade. Today, the church is rebuilt using autoclaved aerated concrete blocks. Completely changing the architecture of the temple, exterior and interior. |
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T34/Liberation memorial
Town hall
The former town hall building is today a part of the university. It stands on the Lenin Square with a monument of Lenin
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