One of the oldest sights of Orsha is Kuteinsky Monastery and Trinity Church. The construction of the Epiphany Monastery began in the first half of the 17th century. The complex included many buildings: a cathedral, a church, a gate-bell tower, residential buildings and workshops. Much of this list has been preserved and has come down to our days.
Probably the main building Trinity Church, which until 1762 had the name Temple of the Holy Spirit. It has features of the early baroque and rather unconventional architecture for today's Orthodox buildings.
However, this church was not the main temple of the monastery, priority was given to the wooden Cathedral of the Epiphany. The building was completely burned down 1885 year.
There is even an interesting legend that the monks on the site of the cathedral found an ancient cave monastery in honor of the Resurrection of the righteous Lazarus.
Although the monastery was located a little far from the center, at the confluence of the two rivers Dnieper and Kuteinka, he failed to avoid destructive wars. The hardest thing was after the looting by Napoleonic troops in 1812. After these events, the period of extinction of the Kuteinsky monastery begins.
At the end of the 19th century, there were attempts to restore the activity of the complex. A school for children was opened at the monastery, new monks came, even a stone gate-bell tower was built.
In 1918, the Kuteinsky Monastery in Orsha was closed: many monks were arrested. Garages began to be built on the site of the Orthodox cemetery, and the church was again plundered.
During the Second World War, a prisoner of war camp was placed on this territory. Then, already in the post-war years, the monastery was given to the needs of the local DOSAAF school, the territory turned into a kind of training base. During this time, all the buildings came to a rather sad look.
In the 90s, the monastery was returned to believers, who began the reconstruction of the Trinity Church and the gradual restoration of the entire complex. You can see this attraction Francysk Skaryna street 77, below is a point with a mark on the map:
Look in the city center ancient castle и ethnographic museum in the mill.
