Bernardine monks settled in Dubrovno, Vitebsk region, back in the early 17th century. By 1630, through the efforts of the Vilna castellan Nikolai Glebovich built wooden male монастырь. Unfortunately, the buildings of those times have not survived to this day, and only a stone residential building, erected in 1809 year.
This version of the monastery was already built under the new owner of Dubrovno - Franciszek Xavier Lubomirski. There is even a legend according to which it was on behalf of Lubomirsky that the Bernardine church was set on fire. Like, in retaliation to the monks for marrying his daughter to a poor nobleman. However, quickly repenting of his deed, Lubomirsky began to restore the monastery.
Very little is known about the architecture of the monastery church and its fate. There is an assumption that they did not rebuild it from stone, but in 1830 they completely destroyed it. Dubrovensky monastery At that time, it was already closed. According to another version, the church was rebuilt after all and it remained a parish until 1864, and then it was blown up during the Second World War, during the German occupation of the city.
With the architecture of the residential building, everything is simpler: the building is two-story, T-shaped, made in a transitional style from baroque to classicism without any special decorative frills.
The end of the 19th - the first half of the 20th century again leaves many questions about the fate of the monastery, to which there are almost no answers. Surprisingly, very little information has been preserved for what purposes this building was used in those days. There are only fragmentary memories of local residents that at the end of the 30s, just before the start of the war, films were shown and dances were held within the walls of the already rebuilt Bernardine church. Perhaps the local House of Culture and administration were located here.
The Rabfak (workers' faculty) worked in the residential building of the monastery, and after the end of the war, the Russian school number 2.
In 1996, the restoration of the former monastery began: the roof was replaced, the baroque pediments were restored, and the ceilings were strengthened. However, after this work stopped for a long time.
In 2013, they started talking about resuming the reconstruction, they even planned to allocate a significant amount from the budget, but things did not go beyond simple promises.
The Bernardine Monastery is located immediately at the entrance to Dubrovno from Orsha (Orshanskaya Street), below is the point with the location on the map:
Another interesting sight of the city is the restored building cloth workshop on the other side of the Dnieper. If you're in the area, I also recommend checking out ruins of a 19th century church in the village of Solovye.
