Dominican Monastery (Minsk)

In 1600, the widow of the Venden voivode Krzysztof Sluša Sofia (from the Zavishi clan) began to build a wooden church, shortly after the construction was completed in 1605, which went to the Dominican monks ^{[2] [3]} . According to the testimony of Vladislav Syrokomli , the monastery was supported by the nobility - it organized the collection of the church fund, called the “Kopytkova”. It was a fee for carrying a horse through the city outpost ^[4] . Later, the arms of the initiators of this collection were placed in the interior of the Dominican monastery. In 1615, after a fire, the Minsk voivode Peter Tyshkevich gave the monks an area for the construction of stone buildings. As of 1623, the church is referred to as recently pledged ^[5] . It is assumed that it was built in the years 1620-1640 and consecrated in honor of Thomas Aquinas , one of the most famous representatives of the Dominican Order , philosopher, preacher ^[6] .

The monastery and the church were located near the southern line of the city fortifications - an earthen bank with a moat and bastions . In the second half of the XVII century, the monastery was one of the defensive outposts of the city. The Russian documents of the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) mention that “regimental and plantar and musket combat” could be conducted from the church ^[7] . Travelers passing through Minsk celebrated the magnificence and wealth of the church, and Peter I Tolstoy , the steward, who stayed in the city in 1697, admired the organ. It is known that from 1692 to 1698 K. Murashkevich served as an organist in the cathedral, and from 1698 - K. Lastovsky ^{[3] [8]} .

In 1703, the construction of a new monastery complex was completed, and in 1709, the "restoration of the church, especially the second half of the nave, began to be completed, and the rest of the church should be leveled together with the chapels." In 1781 another reconstruction of the church began, for which the rector of the Peter and Paul Monastery, N. Danilevsky, leased a brick factory to the Dominicans, located in the Medvezhino gorge. In 1781, the burgomaster and chairman of the masons' workshop N. Makarevich signed a contract with B. Rybchinsky, the abbot of the monastery, for construction work ^[3] . As a result of restoration, the monastery received an unusual ensemble composition - the creation of two plans-scenes, deployed in space ^[9] .

In connection with the creation of the Minsk diocese in 1798, part of the buildings of the Dominican monastery was transferred to the episcopal residence. After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830, July 18, 1832, the monastery was closed by the Russian authorities, and the church began to operate as a parish church in the name of the Trinity ^[3] . In the 1840s, the monastery buildings were rebuilt under a Catholic spiritual seminary ^[10] . After the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, the complex began to be used as a military court. In the 1880s, the project of adapting the church to a theater appeared, which was never implemented ^[2] . During the 19th century, the church lost its side towers ^[11] . At the beginning of the 20th century, the church building was used by a fire station. Around 1907, the top of the church gable was demolished, and a wooden observation tower was erected in its place ^[12] .

July 5, 1926 the complex was taken under state protection ^[13] . During the liberation of Minsk by Soviet troops in 1944, the church building was damaged. After the end of the war in 1945, the German government paid a contribution to the restoration of the buildings of the Byelorussian SSR , some of which went to the primary preservation of the building ^{[2] [14]} .

However, in 1950, the leadership of the BSSR approved the master plan for the Central Square , according to which a monument to Joseph Stalin was erected in the middle of it, and a square was broken up at the site of the former monastery. Soon the church was blown up, and its stones went to the construction of new facilities in Minsk ^[14] . In 1986, archaeologists discovered the foundation of the church. In some places, its walls reached 3 meters; lower battlements, adapted for firing from muskets, were found on the facades. Zenon Poznyak , who took part in the excavations, wrote in one of the articles that when archaeologists reached the XVII century layer, they found several dozen skeletons with fractured or pierced skulls ^[14] .

The architectural ensemble had a clear spatially-expanded composition, the first plan of which was created by the entrance gate, in the background was the main ensemble of the church itself, and the walls of the monastery building served as a kind of background.

Monastic buildings with the complex occupied an area of ​​9,949.5 m², in addition there were properties in other parts of Minsk, which in total amounted to 5445 m² and were leased to the townspeople ^[15] .

Catholic church

The church was a monument of Baroque architecture. It was a classic three-nave basilica without a transept , with a rectangular altar . Two chapels were located in the southwestern parts of the side aisles ^[10] . The high ship of the temple on the main facade was completed by a multi-tiered figured shield, decorated with rusticated pilasters , side volutes , decorative vases, architraves and arched window openings ^[3] . The picturesqueness of the facade significantly enriched the octahedral rotundas of the chapel, which were located on both sides of the facade. A sacristy adjoined to the north-west facade in the form of a rectangular apse ^[12] .

The central nave was blocked by cylindrical arches, and the side naves - by the cross ^[10] . The interior was decorated with baroque frescoes and 13 stucco altars with rocaille - the main and side altars , which were located around 6 inter-cave pillars ^[16] . The main altar was dedicated to Thomas Aquinas , to his left were altars dedicated to the Virgin Mary of the Rosary , the Apostle Thaddeus , St. Barbara of Iliopolis , St. Vincent Ferrer , Catherine of Alexandria , the Archangel Michael ; on the right are the altars of the Crucifixion of Christ , St. Dominic , the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary , St. Jacek Odrownage , St. John of Nepomuk . Two more altars were in the chapels ; in the left chapel, built on the donations of Glebovichi , in honor of Mary Magdalene , in the right, built on donations from Zavisha and painted with frescos of the Passion of Christ , in honor of the Sorrowing Virgin Mary. Also on the eaves there were 8 stucco emblems of the founders and patrons of the monastery ^[12] .

In the choirs, above the narthex, there was an organ designed for 24 votes and the largest in Minsk. In the 1830s, the future composer Stanislav Moniuszko , who lived in the building opposite, often came to the church to listen to the organ ^[14] .

Monastery Gate

In front of the main facade of the church stood the entrance gate, consisting of two three-tiered bell towers, connected by an entrance portico in the form of a triumphal arch. The towers were decorated with four diagonally arranged volutes that were surmounted by baroque signatures ^[17] .

Monastery complex

The monastery building - a rectangular elongated two-story building with hipped roofs - adjoined at right angles to the presbytery and the end of the side nave of the church and merged with it into a monumental array. The central part of the facade stood out with a rizalit ^[2] . The premises of the monastery were overlapped with cross vaults ^[10] .

In addition to the stone monastery building, there were outbuildings: a one-storey corridor house, divided into a kitchen with a bakery and housing for servants (1825), two sheds with a stable for four horses, a barn with a glacier (1823), a well with a canopy ^[15] .

There is a project to restore the church in a historic place. The sketch of the church was developed by the specialists of the architectural section of the Belarusian Voluntary Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments based on research materials.

In 2011, the society prepared an appeal to the Minsk authorities with the rationale for this proposal ^[18] .

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• Kulagin A.M. Catholic cathedrals of Belarus: Entsykl. davennik - 2. - Mn. : BelEn, 2008. - p. 488. - ISBN 978-985-11-0395-5 .
• Kulagin A.M. Catholic cathedrals of Belarus: Entsykl. davennik - 2. - Mn. : BelEn, 2001. - P. 216. - ISBN 985-11-0199-0 .
• Tamara Gabrus. Muravanyya Kharaly: Sacral arkhitekture of the Belarusian Baroque. - Mn. : Urajay, 2001. - p. 287. - ISBN 985-04-0499-X .
• Belarusian archive. - Mn. , 1928. - Vol. 3.

• Kascel Svyatog Tamash Akvіnskaga i Klyastar damіnіkantsaў at Minsk (neopr.) . Catholic.by ..
• Damіnіkany. Perspectives of addelennya. (Neopr.) Belarusian dabraahvotnay tavarystva Akhov pomnіkaў g_storyі culture.