Palace and park complex in Shchorsy

The palace and park complex in Shchorsy or, as it is called the Hreptovichy Palace, is an architectural monument and an example of landscape art of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries. Unfortunately today you can see only a part of it.

At the end of the XVIII century Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Count Joachim Litavor Hreptovich decided to build the palace and park complex in the style of French classicism of Louis XV on his lands in Shchorsy. The best European architects of that time - the Italians Giuseppe Sacco and Carlo Spampani, and the Frenchman Gabriel Yacoub were invited to put into practice the wishes of the estate owners.

Hreptovichy Palace was built in 1776. It immediately became the center of the estate of the Belarusian magnates. It was a one-storeyed building with a double-deck central part. A picturesque park with the area about 40 hectares with a system of artificial lakes was situated around the palace. There was the T-shaped building with a six-column portico in front of the central lake. Near it was located a house of estate caretaker. On the nearby territory was also a library with a collection consisting of more than 20,000 books written in various languages, geographical maps of Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, and the unique historical documents. The poets A.Mickiewicz, V.Syrokomlya, Y.Chachot, as well as historians I.Lelevel, I.Danilovich, M.Malinovsky arrived at the palace in Shchorsy to work in the library.

Joachim Litavor Hreptovich was not only a passionate bibliophile. He was also a talented estate owner. He almost abolished serfdom in Shchorsy a hundred years earlier than in the country. In the estate was developed a livestock sector. It was the first place in Belarus where was introduced crop rotation. Local places were famous for their delicious beer and bread that were delivered to Prussia. Goods from the Hreptovichy estate traditionally had much higher stock prices. Swiss masters were working in the local cheese dairy factories. They produced different types of cheese that had being delivered to Petersburg. Ponds were used for fishing. There were also a wine factory, an oil mill, different factories for production of bricks, bone meal as a fertilizer and drainage pipes. In Shchorsy there were also a water sawmill and three mills. Dealers-wholesalers sent flour to different cities of Russia. Later they built a shipyard on the Neman where small vessels were manufactured. As a yard in the second half of the ХIХ century there was built so-called «Murovanka of Hreptovichy». It was located one kilometer away from the palace and park complex.

During the First World War the palace was burnt down and had not been restored. Throughout the twentieth century little by little the estate had been tumbling down. The outbuildings were given into possession of a local collective farm (kolkhoz). Today in a few remained buildings are placed the local government and a kindergarten. In the building of library first there was located a school, then art studios. And now these buildings are empty and are destroying little by little. The English landscaped park with the area of 40 hectares, where more than 200 plant species were once growing, now resembles a wild forest. The cascade pond system looks like a number of marshes that have unnatural rectangular shape.

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