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.

Zhuprany

The history of the small town of Zhuprany started at the beginning of the 15^th century when the Great Duke Vitovt gave it as a present to Vilno Voevode Voiceh Monvid. For almost three hundred years it was owned by the famous Belarussian family Radzivills, who enjoyed hunting in Zhupranskaya Pushcha. At the end of the 18^th century the small town and outskirts were named as Zhupranskoye County.

The town had a wooden Genevan church a market square a mill and three inns: the Olkhovka, the Lipovka and Count Chapsky’s Inn. The town witnessed the retreat of French troops in 1812. Moral and physical degradation of the soldiers at Oshmyany was described by the French writer Count de Segure in his “History of Napoleon”. Many of legends surrounding Napoleon survived to this day. The locals too have one: it is about Napoleon hiding treasures not far from Zhuprany. Local historian Cheslav Yankovsky had several pages of his 1896 research text “Oshmyanski Povet” dedicated to Zhuprany.

Zhuprany has a close connection with the life and public and literary activities of the outstanding poet of the 19^th century Frantishak Bogushevich. His ancestral manor is situated about 9 kilometres from the town.

The Grave of Poet Frantishak Bogushevich

The poet was buried in Zhuprany in 1900. Old residents recall that symbols of the poet’s work – a pipe, a bow and a violin – hung over his tomb for several years. In 1975 a stele with a bas-relief of Frantishak Bogushevich was erected. Since then Zhuprany has been turne into a kind of literary Mecca for Belarusians.

St.Peter and Paul Catholic Church

An impressive neo-Gothic church was built in Zhuprany in 1854-1890. Poet Bogushevich himself took an active part in the construction of this sanctuary. That is why in 1901 a marble memorial plate with his portrait was placed inside the church.

Oshmyany

In 1340 the small town Oshmyany turned from a settlement in the Vilno Principality to a fortress of the Great Dukes of Lithuania. The residency first belonged to Gedimin, and in time passed on as inheritance to his sons Yavnut and then Olgerd. From 1382 Oshmyany became the personal domain of Duke Yagailo. The town weathered two offences from the Crusaders, in 1384 – 1385 and in 1402. Oshmyany remained as one of the residencies of the Great Dukes of Lithuania until the middle of the 15^th century. On the night of September 1 1432 Duke Zhigimont Keistutovich organized in Oshmyany a successful coup d’etat. Around 10,000 people died in the fighting surrounding it.

At the beginning of the 16^th century the town was granted the priviledge of self-government according to the Statute of Magdeburg. During the uprising of 1794 an insurgent army headed by Y. Yasinsky housed its headquarters in Oshmyany. The well known belarussian painter Y.Korchevsky (1806-1833) was born in the town, in a lawyer’s family. He graduated from the philosophy department of Vilno University and then continued his studies at St.Petersburg University majoring in law but at the same time studying painting. Korchevsky’s speciality was thematic and historical painting. From 1829 on he went to live and work in Italy.

The brick Church of the Resurrection was built in 1875. Together with a Catholic church it forms a silhouette of the historical square. St.Mikhail Archangel Catholic church was built with the donation from King Vladislav Yagailo at the beginning of the 15^th century. It was rebuild in 1900 – 1906 following the project of architect Vaclav Mikhnevich, in a Vilno Baroque style.

Krevo Castle

The castle was built in the 14^th century as a residence of the Duke and as a fortress. It was a part of chain fortresses that formed the defensive line against the Crusaders. In Lida, Grodno, Novogrudok, Krevo, Medniki, Vilno and Troki new types of structures were being built. They were small stone castles: one or two towers built on dam in marsh areas. Krevo castle takes the shape of an irregular quadrangle. The length of its sides varies from 71 meters to 108 meters. The thikness of walls is 2.5-3 meters, height: 13 meters. The main building material used was boulders. Two towers, the Duke’s and the Small, are placed diagonally. Another place in Belarus where this type of castle adopted from the Crusaders is Lida.

Krevo Castle was unfortunate. At the beginning of the 15^th century it was captured several times by Crimean Tatars and Moscow troops. Despite this and because of the strategic position of the township, in 1563 Krevo was chosen as a gathering place for the Great Lithuanian Principality’s militia. After the castle’s destruction in the middle of the 17^th century there was virtually no information on the township. Only in the 18^th century did it re-emerge as a trade town.

Krevo

Krevo is situated in 10 km from Boruny. Once it was a place where the destiny of whole Great Lithuanian Principality was decided, and epoch-making events for Polish, Belarussian and Lithuanian nations took place.

The place’s name is usually connected to term “krevo-kreveito” a title of a Lithuanian pagan prophet. According to the historian M.Ermolovich the township got his name during its colonization by the Slavonic tribe Krivichi. In as far back as the 13^th century Krevo was mentioned in German chronicles as one of the centres of the legendary Golshany Principality. In 1338 Great Duke Gedimin, when dividing his land between his sons Keistuit and Olgerd gave Krevo Castle to Olgerd. Sicnce that time small town has been known as the centre of an appanage principality. Olgerd lived here untilhe was crowned leader of the Great Lithuanian Principality in 1341. He handed over the appanage to his son Yagailo, Duke of Vitebsk and Krevo.

After Olgerd's death in 1377, his brother Keistut completed with Yagailo for the throne og the GLP. Using his authority in 1381 Keistut actually managed to take the throne away from his nephew, but only until the appearance of the Crusaders. German knights helped Yagailo to defeat Keistut. The last defenders of pagan Lithuania were utterly crushed.

According to one version, Duke Keistut was strangled in Krevo Castle tower. The same fate was also prepared for his son Vitovt. Through a housemaid of his second wife Anna, the son was able to get in touch with his loyal friends who helped him to escape. Vitovt, disguised as a housemaid, slid along the side gallery of the castle’s walls to a defensive ditch where his brothers-in-arms were already waiting. As sworn enemies cousins Vitovt and Yagailo should have prepared for an irreconcilable struggle but fate ordered differently.

In 1385 Polish ambassadors arrived to Krevo Castle proposing Yagailo to marry the Princess Yadviga from the Pyasts dynasty and thus to become the Polish King. The union of the two nations became known in history as the Krevo Union of 1385. As the result Yagailo became head of two states, and took the name Vladislav II.