Temples and Monasteries

Ilyinskaya Church

(Ilyinskaya St.)

Ilyinskaya Church – a monument of pseudo‑Russian style architecture. It was built of wood in 1460 on the left bank of the Dnieper. Rebuilt in stone at the end of the 19th century. The church has a cross‑dome composition with a pentagonal apse and a tent‑shaped bell tower above the narthex. The facades are richly decorated with various pilasters, cornices and kokoshnik arches. The interior has a symmetrical elongated structure along the longitudinal axis: narthex, main volume, apse. The central part of the main volume is topped with a dome. The church grounds are enclosed by a stone fence, whose corners are reinforced with buttresses and decorative towers. Monumental gates are located on the side of Ilyinskaya Street. The church is a monument of pseudo‑Russian style architecture.
The church houses an icon of the Orsha Mother of God.

Complex of the former Jesuit collegium

(Lenin St., 6A)

Built in the 17th century. The complex included a stone church and a two‑storey building for the collegium (1690), a one‑storey burse building and utility structures. By the 1990s the buildings of the collegium, burse, refectory and part of the stone monastery wall had survived. At the beginning of the 21st century the refectory building and the wall were destroyed.
The Jesuit monastery complex is a monument of Baroque architecture. The walls are pierced by two rows of rectangular windows. One of the end walls has an arched entrance, the other retains pilasters. A wide cornice belt finishes the walls of the corps.

The Orsha Jesuit collegium was a Catholic educational institution that operated in Orsha from 1612 to 1820. It contributed to the development of the European education system in Belarus. A whole host of notable figures emerged from its walls: among them poet and actor Pyotr Shumaker, founder of the Jesuit order in the USA Franziskus Dzeruzhinsky, Minister of Public Education under Tsar Alexander I Pyotr Zavodsky, etc.

From 1839 to 1989 a prison was located here.

During 2007‑2008 a large‑scale reconstruction of the surviving buildings was carried out, and a new clock tower was rebuilt. After 400 years, the place and significance of the collegium for the townspeople were practically restored: it now houses the V.S. Korotkevich City Children’s Library, the Orsha City Art Gallery V.A. Hromyko, and the culture department of the city executive committee.

Kuteyski Male Epiphany Monastery

(F. Skoryna St., 77)

Located on the left bank of the Dnieper, at the mouth of the Kuteyka River. Built in the 17th century. One of the largest and most famous medieval cultural‑educational centers of Belarus. It was well known for its typography, which in the 17th century became the center of Belarusian Cyrillic printing. From the Kutey monastery, the best craftsmen—woodcarvers, engravers, carpenters, masons—were sent to the Moscow state. In 1631 a miraculous icon of the Orsha Mother of God appeared to the monastery monks.

Monastery churches:

1. The Holy Epiphany Cathedral was built in 1623‑1635. The wooden church building was erected on a massive stone foundation. A 40‑metre‑high five‑spired temple was surrounded by a low covered gallery. The cathedral consisted of four blocks in a cross‑centric composition. The interior walls were painted with 38 multi‑figure compositions. It was famous for its six‑tiered carved iconostasis. The cathedral is a majestic work of Belarusian wooden architecture. It burned down in 1885 due to a lightning strike and was never rebuilt.

2. The Church of the Resurrection of the Righteous Lazarus – a cave underground church. It was located beneath the Epiphany Cathedral. Area – about 11 sq m. It had a cross‑shaped layout with a low stone vault. In the altar area, on the place of the throne, stood a low wooden cross.

3. The Holy Trinity (formerly Holy Spirit) church was built in the 17th century as a two‑storey stone building “in the style of Belarusian Baroque”. It consists of three volumes arranged along the longitudinal axis: the narthex (babinets) with a bell tower on the upper tier; the central rectangular volume; the apse, a five‑sided altar part. The church has survived several reconstructions to the present day. Today it is single‑storey. It has been in operation since 1993.

Kuteyski Holy Assumption Female Monastery

(Ilyinskaya St., 4)

Located on the Kuteyka River not far from the male monastery. Founded in 1630. Had a miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God. Destroyed in the 1940s.
Monastery churches:

1. Assumption of the Holy Mother of God. Wooden. Burned in 1635. Rebuilt in stone in Baroque style 20 years later.

2. Protection of the Mother of God. Wooden.

3. Cathedral in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Stone. Built in 1653.

4. Saint Nicholas. Stone.

In 1996 the revival of the monastery began on the area adjoining the Ilyinskaya Church. Currently a cellar building and the Holy Assumption church, consecrated in 2006, have been built. The church houses icons embroidered by Orsha resident V.A. Yankovskaya.

Bernardine Monastery

(Komsomolskaya St., 2)

Built in the first half of the 17th century on the bank of the Orshitsa River. The complex included a stone church and a two‑storey residential building. The church has not survived. The residential building is a monument of Baroque architecture with elements of early classicism. The two‑storey G‑shaped brick structure is covered with a hipped roof. The walls are pierced by two rows of rectangular window openings with casings. The building’s corners feature wide pilasters. A profiled cornice finishes the walls of the corps. The building houses a hospital.

Building of the former Franciscan monastery

(Dominikanskaya St., 4)

Built in the first half of the 17th century. The complex included a stone church and a residential building. The church was destroyed in the 1960s.

The monastery building – a monument of Baroque architecture with elements of early classicism. The two‑storey G‑shaped stone structure is covered with a hipped roof. The walls are pierced by two rows of windows, which on the second floor are arched, on the first – rectangular. The end façade has a semicircular niche, and the corners feature buttresses. The building was transferred to the ownership of the Vitebsk Diocese of the Belarusian Orthodox Church.

Church of Saint Joseph (Dominican monastery)

(Sovetskaya St., 6)

The Church of St. Joseph – the only building that survived from the monastery complex. Built of brick at the beginning of the 19th century on the site of a former wooden one. Significantly rebuilt in the 20th century.

In the architecture of the church, features of classicism are traced. The monumental volume is elongated along Sovetskaya Street and faces it with its side façade. The main façade had a symmetrical composition. The lower projecting part of its plane was divided by two deep niches. The axial solution of the entrance is emphasized by a semicircular frieze. The plane of the wall at the level of the second floor is pierced by three arched windows with sills. The second floor is designed as a wide attic, decorated with pilasters and a circular roof window. The façade was finished by a triangular pediment. The side façades of the main volume were decorated with shallow arched niches. In the late 1980s the church was handed over to Catholics. Since 1991 it has been under restoration, simultaneously receiving parishioners. The church contains a photocopy of the painting of the first Orsha battle.

Basilian Monastery

(Museum Lane, 12)

Located on the right bank of the Orshitsa River. Built in 1758‑1774 from stone, the monastery ensemble consisted of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, an attached monastic residential block, and the Church of St. Euphemia.

Monument of Baroque architecture with “elements of early classicism”. The most beautiful architectural ensemble of the city was regarded by art historians as the Orsha Notre‑Dame. The three‑aisle cross‑dome basilica with lowered side aisles and high transverse aisles, a two‑tower main façade – has not survived. The surviving monastery building is a G‑shaped, two‑storey structure. Both floors have a gallery plan. The walls are treated with pilasters and rusticated pilasters. A horizontal belt separates the first and second floors. Undecorated window openings alternate with flat niches; in the southeast part of the building a staircase and ceremonial halls have survived. The remaining rooms were used for housing and work. Since 1823 the structures belonged to the male Pokrovsky Orthodox monastery.

After the revolution, a regional museum operated in the church.

The church was destroyed in 1969. The monastery building was used as housing. It is not under the jurisdiction of the diocese, being revived as a female Holy Intercession Monastery.

Trinitarian Monastery

(Komsomolskaya St., 21)

Built in 1714.

It included a stone church and a monastery building. The church was reconsecrated and rebuilt in 1832 as the Orthodox Resurrection City Cathedral with five domes. In the 1930s it was converted into an aeroclub. During the Great Patriotic War it was partially destroyed. It was finally demolished in 1960. The residential building is a monument of Baroque architecture. The two‑storey G‑shaped brick building is covered with a dual‑sloped roof. The walls are pierced by two rows of rectangular windows, which alternate on the eastern façade with flat niches. The northern end of the building is supported by massive buttresses. On the first floor of the eastern and northern façades there is a window sill stretch. A wide cornice finishes the walls of the building. Both floors have a gallery plan.
After restoration, the monastery building houses a zonal archive and a civil registry office.

Cathedral Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God

(Sovetskaya St.)

Located on the bank of the Orshitsa opposite the ancient settlement. Built in 1661. Rebuilt in stone in 1781. In 1843 a stone bell tower was erected nearby. In the 19th century the church was reconsecrated as the Nikolskiy. Destroyed in 1960. Currently it has been erected on the old foundations in its original form with the blessing of Metropolitan Filaret, as indicated by a commemorative plaque on the church wall. Internal works are underway. The making of an iconostasis has begun in the workshop of the Kutey monastery.

Church of the Nativity of Christ

(Station Square)

Located on the station square. The site for construction was blessed in 1998 by Metropolitan Filaret. On May 22, 2000 it was temporarily opened in a specially equipped wagon. A stone church is being built nearby.

Church of Hieromonk Leonid of Ust‑Nedumsk

(Lenin St., opposite the Main Post Office)

The church has been active since 2003. Stone. During the First Orthodox Festival in Orsha in 2006 the church’s bell tower was solemnly opened and consecrated. It was painted by the well‑known Orsha artist A. Maryshev.