St. Dmitriy Church in Shchorsy
To book a tourThere is St.Dmitriy Church in Shchorsa - a small Belarusian village located just 30 km away from Novogrudok on the banks of the Neman, near the picturesque forest of Nalibokskaya puszcza.
Shchorsa has been known since the XV century. Its owner was a member of noble family Hreptovichy. It is known that Ian Hreptovich received a coat of arms in 1413, and in 1641 the Seim of Poland awarded the Hreptovichys the Title of Count.
From 1386 there had been a wooden Orthodox St.Dmitriy Church in the village. There was an worshipped icon of the Saint. The legend tells that the founder of Hreptovichy magnate family gave a vow to build a church in gratitude to Saint Dmitriy if he saved him from death during an unsuccessful battle with the Tatars.
In 1758 St.Dmitriy Church was burned. In 1770-1776 a landlord the count Joachim Hrebtovich gave money to build a new brick church on the place of old wooden one. Its project was made by Italian architects J.Sacco and K.Spampani.
In 1812 the miraculous list of Tikhvinskaya icon of the Mother of God had being kept in St.Dmitriy Church. In 1930 the temple was badly damaged by fire, but it was later restored. In the late 1950s years the church was closed, and then the local authorities first converted it into a gym, and later - into a granary. As a result St.Dmitriy Church began tumbling down. In 1988 it was returned to the Orthodox Church, and later it was reconstructed.
Today the temple is a monumental building with a low square tower on the main facade and a high arched gallery entrance.
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