Kushlyany

While moving from Zhuprany to Smorgon along the ancient Krevo road one will see a sign to Kushlyany on the righthand side. Just 3 km from the main road lays the ancestral manor of Francishak Bogushevich (1840 - 1900). Nowadays it is difficult to imagine that this small settlement was once the place where Belarussian literature of the 19^th century was being formed. Bogushevich’s first collections of poems “Belarussian Pipe” and “Belarussian Bow” were written here. The poet studiously worked at collecting a Belarussian dictionary and dreamed of publishing of a Belarussian grammar book. Today the house is one of the few 19^th century gentry’s manors to survive in the Grodno region.

There is a unique exhibition housed at the poet’s literary and arts museum in Kushlyany. Frantishak Bogushevich participated in he 1863 – 1864 Uprising and after its suppression erected a chapel near the manor house in memory of all those who perished “for our and your freedom”. A chestnut alley in the manor’s park leads to the poet’s loyal friend – a big stone. Under it Bogushevich kept his correspondences and poems away from the censors and the Tsarist gendar-merie. On 28^th of April 1900 the poet died in his ancestral home.