Baranovichi is an industrial city and a large railway junction
halfway between Minsk and
Brest. Its history began with the
construction of a railway, so the city can hardly be called
historical, but, oddly enough, there are several not quite trivial
sights in it: a wooden Polish church, a railway museum, as well as
curious temples of the first and second half of the 20th century.
Baranovichi arose in 1871 in connection with the construction of
the Smolensk-Brest railway. The name was given to the village that
existed on this site at least from the 17th century. Although from a
modern point of view, the name seems sarcastic, at that time there
was nothing special in it: if there is
Bobruisk, there must be
Baranovichi. Soon, new railways appeared: a branch to Bialystok and
a main line Vilnius-Rivne, crossing the Brest line in Baranovichi.
From that moment on, Baranovichi turned into the largest railway
junction in the west of Belarus.
The settlement around the
station rapidly increased in size and already in 1894 received city
status as part of the Novogrudok district. After the revolution, the
city passed to Poland, where it was part of the Novogrudok
Voivodeship. Since the fall of 1939, Baranovichi was part of the
Byelorussian SSR. At that moment, a "castling" took place:
Baranovichi became the regional center, and Novogrudok became the
regional center, now the Baranovichi region, which, in general,
fully reflected the actual state of affairs. Nevertheless, the
Baranovichi did not have to enjoy the status of the regional center
for long: in 1954, the region was abolished, dividing it between
Grodno and Brest, and Baranovichi themselves ended up in the latter.
Now Baranovichi is a large city by Belarusian standards, which,
at first glance, is completely uninteresting, but for an attentive
traveler it will still be more curious than their railway
counterparts Molodechno and Orsha. There is a good railway museum in
Baranovichi and there are several monuments from Polish times. In
addition, the city is almost impossible to drive past, so if you are
traveling in western Belarus, it is worth spending a few hours
exploring it.
Orientation
The center of Baranovichi is
Lenin Square, located approximately in the middle between the
Central and Polessky railway stations. Around the square are
quarters of Stalinist grand buildings, and the rest of the city is a
mixture of panel houses and the private sector. Huge industrial
zones adjoin the railways, so Baranovichi looks the least attractive
from the train window.
Orientation
The center of Baranovichi is Lenin Square, located
approximately in the middle between the Central and Polessky railway
stations. Around the square are quarters of front Stalinist buildings,
and the rest of the city is a mixture of panel houses and the private
sector. Huge industrial zones adjoin the railways, so Baranovichi looks
the least attractive from the train window.
Center
1 Lenin
Square. On the central square of the city, you will see an exemplary
ensemble of post-war Soviet architecture, consisting of a house with a
spire, the concrete building of the Horizon Hotel, the Oktyabr cinema,
which is not devoid of originality, and the quaint Stone Flower
fountain. Other examples of such monumental art are found on the Heinola
pedestrian boulevard leading to the Church of the Myrrhbearing Women.
2 Church of the Myrrh-bearing Women, blvd. Heinola, 2 (center). Not the
most interesting, but a very large example of a modern Belarusian church
built in the early 2000s. It is located in the very center of the city,
and the domes of the church are always in sight - they look out
beautifully from behind the buildings of the Soviet era.
3 Pokrovsky
Cathedral , st. Kuibyshev (along Komsomolskaya street towards the
central station). Before the revolution, there were no stone churches in
Baranovichi. In 1921, a wooden Orthodox cathedral burned down, and a
decision was made to build a stone one. The development of his project
was influenced by the news that in Warsaw they would demolish the huge,
built shortly before the revolution and also Orthodox Alexander Nevsky
Cathedral. The temple in Baranovichi began to be built in such a way as
to accommodate the property of the Warsaw Cathedral. This was only
partially successful, since the Polish authorities cared little about
the preservation of the relics, but they still managed to transport
something to Baranovichi. The Intercession Cathedral was built from 1924
to 1931, and this is a neoclassical temple, rare for Belarus (and even
more so for its Polish period), on which the influence of modernism and
functionalism that prevailed at that time was not reflected at all. The
mosaics of the Warsaw Cathedral were collected in Baranovichi literally
bit by bit, some of them still lie in the basements and are unlikely to
be restored. Although the mosaics are often called "Vasnetsov's", in
reality Vasnetsov is the author of only one of them - the fragment of
the Virgin and Child placed in the apse, part of a larger (and,
apparently, no longer recoverable) composition. Several more mosaics by
Nikolai Koshelev and Nikolai Bruni were installed in the niches of the
outer walls. Pay attention to the mosaic “Christ with a Donor”, where,
according to the official version, Saint Alexander Nevsky is depicted,
although they say that Leonty Benois, the architect of the destroyed
Warsaw Cathedral, is shown in his image.
4 Holy Cross Church, st.
Kuibysheva, 34 (along Komsomolskaya street towards the central station).
The wooden church built in 1924 is one of the most interesting monuments
of the Polish time on the territory of Belarus. Despite its modest size,
the church organically combines the features of different architectural
styles, and the huge eye above the porch looks completely mystical.
The buildings in the center of Baranovichi are mostly Soviet and
unremarkable, only the pre-war bank building of 1927-29 stands out in
it. (street Sovetskaya, 77), which is next to the Church of the
Myrrh-bearing Women. Another couple of nice samples of pre-war buildings
are located next to the Polessky railway station: this is a pharmacy
building (Telmana street, 15) and an old fire station (Telmana street,
21): both were built in the 1930s. In the same area, opposite the
railway museum, there is the oldest house in Baranovichi - a nice
two-story brick mansion in the Art Nouveau style (50 Frolenkova Street).
Outskirts
Church of St. Sigmund, st. Enthusiasts / st. Sergeant
(in the eastern part of the city). Built in 1996-2000 the temple is an
infrequent example of avant-garde architecture in Belarus, most of all
reminiscent of Polish churches of the second half of the 20th century.
Church of Alexander Nevsky, st. Telman, 108 (in the eastern part of the
city). Consecrated in 1998, the Orthodox church was built on the site of
a wooden church destroyed after the war. This is another modern
variation on the theme of Russian style - bolder, but less elegant than
the Church of the Myrrh-bearing Women in the city center.
Catholic
church of Our Lady of Fatima, Sovetsky pr. 16 (in the northern part of
the city). The least interesting of the modern Baranovichi temples
(1998) greets guests entering the city from the M1 highway.
The name Baranovichi was formed from the "collective nickname", that is, the designation of the first settlers. So they could call the descendants of a certain person by name or nickname Baran. The secular (non-canonical) name Baran was very common until the 15th-16th centuries.
The coat of arms and the Flag were approved by the decision of the Baranovichi City Council of Deputies on November 30, 2012 No. 144.
By train
Almost all trains running in the west of Belarus pass
through Baranovichi. In the direction of Minsk and Brest, fast
long-distance and slow suburban trains. You can also go to Minsk by a
comfortable regional business class train. In the direction of Minsk,
departures are every hour, on the way 1.5-2 hours. In the direction of
Brest a little less often, on the way 2.5-3 hours.
By daytime
train you can go to Grodno (4.5-5 hours), Lida (2.5 hours, only
suburban, 4 times a day) or to the south - to the Luninets station,
through which the Brest-Gomel highway passes. Long-distance trains or
trailer cars to them will take you to any of the remaining Belarusian
regional centers - Vitebsk, Mogilev or Gomel - and more during the day
than at night.
There are two stations in Baranovichi, the main
one of which, contrary to common sense, is not the Central one, which is
on the line to Brest, but Polessky, located on the side of this line.
Long-distance trains traveling from Minsk to Brest stop only at the
Central Station, but almost all suburban trains and those long-distance
ones that turn north or south in Baranovichi pass through Polessky. The
stations are far from each other and are connected by the only city bus
route 23, so check which station your train arrives at.
1
Polesskiy railway station (Baranovichi-Polesskiye). The luxurious
post-war station is somewhat spoiled by mirrored ceilings, which for
some reason replaced beautiful stucco ceilings. Other than that, the
recent renovations have benefited the building. Inside, you will find
automatic lockers and a buffet in the form of a pastry counter. Near the
station, the Express cafe is apparently the only place where you can eat
a little more thoroughly than in the buffet (although it’s not a fact
that it’s more edible). There are rest rooms.
2 Central Station
(Baranovichi-Central). A small building that would be more suited to a
tiny station in some obscure village.
By bus
In the direction
of Minsk and Brest, the bus service loses to trains, and other intercity
buses do not even call in Baranovichi. In the direction of Slonim and
Grodno, it is also more convenient to travel by train. Buses run several
times a day to Novogrudok (1.5 h) and Nesvizh (1 h 45 min), where there
is no railway.
3 Bus station. 4:40–21:20. It is located in the
middle of the market near the Polessky railway station. There are always
a lot of people inside, there are Soviet-style automatic lockers
(7:00–18:00) and a buffet that looks more like a shop.
There are 31 city bus routes in Baranavichy, and you will need these
buses, since it takes almost half an hour to walk from the center to any
of the stations, and the walk does not bring much pleasure. Almost any
bus following Lenina Street will take you to the Polessky railway
station and vice versa. There is less transport to the Central Station,
and the easiest way is to drive along Komsomolskaya Street (the
continuation of Lenin Street) to the west, and then walk another 5
minutes on foot.
Routes and timetables. Payment for travel by
vouchers (40 Belarusian kopecks), which are sold at newsstands or from
the driver.
In the second half of the 17th century, a Jesuit mission was located
in Baranovichi. In the second half of the 18th century, Baranovichi was
the property of the Mosalskys and Neselovskys, and in the 19th century
it belonged to Countess E. A. Rozvadovskaya.
One of the earliest
mentions of the village of Baranovichi on geographical maps dates back
to 1812. It is marked on a military map compiled by cartographers from
Napoleon's army.
The history of the city dates back to November
17 (29), 1871, when traffic began on the newly built section of the
Smolensk-Brest-Litovsk railway. The name of the station, which arose
during construction, was given by the nearby village of Baranovichi, the
first mention of which is found in the will of A. E. Sinyavskaya in
1627. Then, in 1871, not far from the station, its own locomotive depot
appeared.
1874 - the appearance of the railway junction. The
wooden building of the station, station buildings, a few houses in which
railroad workers lived - such were then Baranovichi. The new railway
made it possible to connect Moscow with the western outskirts of the
country.
The impetus for more intensive settlement of the area
adjacent to the station from the south was an event in May 1884 - the
Minsk provincial government decided to establish a place on the
landowners' lands of Rozvadov, which was called Rozvadovo. The
construction of the town was carried out according to the plan approved
by the Minsk governor on May 27, 1884. The village had 120 houses and
1,500 people.
According to the plans approved by Emperor
Alexander III, it was assumed that another railway would pass here -
Vilna - Luninets - Pinsk - Rovno. Therefore, at the same time, two and a
half kilometers from the station, the Moscow-Brest line of the railway
was crossed by the rails of the Vilna-Rovno direction of the Polesye
railways. At the railway crossroads, another station of the Baranovichi
- Polessye Railways appeared, which became the second center for the
formation of the future city.
As in the first case, workers and
merchants settled in the area of the station. A new settlement arose,
which, in contrast to Rozvadovo, which became Old Baranovichi in
unofficial terms, was called New Baranovichi. It developed on the lands
belonging to the peasants of a number of villages located not far from
the new station (Svetilovichi, Girovo, Uznogi). More convenient than on
the landowner's lands, lease conditions, the proximity of administrative
institutions contributed to the rapid growth of this settlement.
With the commissioning of the Baranovichi-Volkovysk-Bialystok line in
1886, Baranovichi turned into a major railway junction. Rozvadovo
(unofficial name "Old Baranovichi") and New Baranovichi were merged into
a place with the common name Baranovichi.
On October 6, 1888,
petty-bourgeois administration was introduced in the town of Rozvadovo.
Gradually, Baranovichi became a major railway junction connected
with the most important economic centers of the country - central and
southwestern Russia, Poland, and the Baltic states. This contributed to
the fact that the developing settlement attracted the attention of the
military department. In the area of the Baranovichi station of the
Polesye railways, barns, a mill and a rusk factory of the Vilna
commissariat were built, and several battalions of an infantry regiment
were deployed. These undertakings of the military department, as well as
the further development of railway stations, required more and more
manpower.
When Old (the town of Rozvadovo) and New Baranovichi
merged, forming a single town under the general name of
Baranovichi-Rozvadovo, it was a kind of administrative whole: the town,
which had a petty-bourgeois administration, was part of the
Novomyshskaya volost, and New Baranovichi were partly part of
Novomyshskaya, Stolovichskaya , Yastrembelsky and Darevsky volosts of
the Novogrudok district of the Minsk province.
In 1894,
Baranovichi was part of the Novogrudok district of the Minsk province.
In Baranovichi, the population grew rapidly, industry, crafts, and trade
developed. According to the 1897 census, 8718 people lived in
Baranovichi, there were 834 buildings in the city, 4 industrial
enterprises were operating, there were two-class schools - a railway and
a voluntary society.
The new settlement had a rather significant
size, but it was extremely uncomfortable. As a non-urban settlement,
Baranovichi was not subject to almost any norms, either in sanitary,
building or fire-fighting terms. In the settlement of Baranovichi there
were no streets at all: the houses were built without any plan, without
observing the distances between the buildings, there was no lighting not
only in the settlement, but also in the town; not only were there no
sidewalks, but not even a single paved street or even squares; there was
not even a fire truck. For twelve thousand people there was not a single
parish church, not a single general education school, not a single
hospital. This is how Baranovichi was characterized in 1903 in the
conclusion of the commission created by the Minsk governor on the case
of the introduction of the city status in Rozvadovo and the settlements
adjacent to it.
This attempt to transfer the settlement to the
category of cities ended unsuccessfully. But this did not stop the rapid
development of Baranovichi. More and more small enterprises appeared,
the number of workers grew. They, like all the working people of tsarist
Russia, suffered from a difficult economic situation, political lack of
rights, and national oppression. The land in Baranovichi was expensive,
the prices for food, kerosene, matches and other essential goods were
very high. The participation of the workers in the revolution of
1905-1907, which engulfed the whole country after Bloody Sunday on
January 9, 1905, was active. During the first Russian revolution of
1905-1907 in Baranovichi, in December 1905, a major strike of railway
workers took place.
Also during the first Russian revolution in
1905, demonstrations of workers and soldiers took place in Baranovichi.
A week and a half before the end of 1905, 300 railway workers, led by an
engineer-SR and supported by soldiers of the railway brigade, refused to
obey the orders of the leadership, disabled the switch, and stopped
train traffic on this section of the railway. To suppress the
performance, three days later troops arrived from Vilna, and a day later
a punitive expedition of General Orlov arrived. Martial law was
introduced in the city, mass arrests took place.
During the first
decade of the 20th century, Baranovichi became the largest town in the
Novogrudok district with a population of 30 thousand people, four
churches, a Roman Catholic chapel, ten prayer houses, seven elementary
schools, two pharmacies, a theater and a cinema "Eden". 13 doctors, 6
dentists, 8 midwives and a veterinarian practiced here. Before the First
World War, 3 brick, 2 sawmills, an oil mill, an iron foundry, a sugar
mill, 2 mills and 3 millstone factories worked in Baranovichi.
With the outbreak of the First World War, large forces of the Russian
Imperial Army were stationed in Baranovichi. From August 3, 1914 to
August 8, 1915, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich was located in the city (in the area
where the railway brigade was located not far from the
Baranovichi-Polessky station). where Emperor Nicholas II visited 10
times. The headquarters consisted of two trains and the former brigade
commander's house, based approximately at the site of the current
stadium of the Baranovichi State University.
Baranovichi became
the first city in the Russian Empire, where a monument to the heroes of
the First World War was erected on June 8, 1915 (it was demolished in
the 1950s).
During the retreat of 1915 in September it was
occupied by German troops.
In July 1916, the offensive of the
Russian army took place in the suburbs of Baranovichi. However, despite
the mass heroism shown by the Russian army and a small tactical success,
the offensive ended in vain.
On January 5, 1919, Soviet power was
established in Baranovichi. On February 6, 1919, Baranovichi was
declared a city and the center of the county of the Minsk province of
the BSSR. In 1921, according to the Riga Peace Treaty, the city was
ceded to Poland and until 1939 it was part of it with the status of the
center of the county (povet) of Novogrudok Voivodeship.
During
these years, a new Orthodox church was being built in Baranovichi in
honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Under the
leadership of N. Bruni, who participated in the painting of the Warsaw
Cathedral, some mosaic paintings from Warsaw were fixed on the walls of
the temple in Baranovichi. Among them was a part of the mosaic by N. A.
Koshelev “The Savior with the Builder” (“The Savior with the Donor”),
representing L. N. Benois holding a model of the cathedral, as well as a
small fragment of the composition by V. M. Vasnetsov “Rejoices in You
... ". In 1953, due to the fact that mosaics were installed in the
cathedral, it was declared an architectural monument and taken under
state protection).
In 1939, there were 27.4 thousand inhabitants
in Baranovichi. Since September 1939, as a result of agreements between
the USSR and Germany on the actual partition of Poland, and the
subsequent offensive of the Red Army into Poland, the city of
Baranovichi became part of the BSSR and on December 4, 1939 became the
regional center.
Before the start of the Great Patriotic War,
unemployment was eliminated in the city and the region, schools with
instruction in Belarusian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish were opened.
There was a drama theater, a teacher's institute, the newspaper
"Chyrvonaya Zvyazda" ("Red Star") was published, and radio communication
developed. At the same time, the population learned previously unknown
features of the Soviet system: purges and arrests began. At the
initiative of the NKVD, mass deportations of "unreliable" citizens were
organized, primarily to Kazakhstan and Siberia.
On June 27, 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, the city was
occupied by German troops. More than 50,000 prisoners of war and
civilians were shot and tortured to death in prisoner of war camp No.
337 near the Lesnaya railway station, not far from the city.
The
Germans created the Baranovichi ghetto in the city, where about 30,000
Jews from the city and its environs were herded. The population of the
ghetto was massacred in 1942 as part of the so-called "Final Solution to
the Jewish Question". Not far from the Baranovichi-Polessky station in
1942, the Nazis shot down a train with Czechoslovak Jews en route to
Auschwitz. The burgomasters of the city were Viktor Voitenko (1941-1943)
and Yuriy Sobolevsky (1943-1944).
The underground and the
district anti-fascist organization operated in the city. During the
Great Patriotic War, Baranovichi was heavily destroyed. The city was
liberated on July 8, 1944 as a result of the offensive of the troops of
the 1st Belorussian Front and the partisans of the Baranovichi and Minsk
formations in the Baranovichi-Slonim direction (Operation Bagration).
This date is celebrated as City Liberation Day.
According to the results of the first post-war decade, the pre-war
level of development was completely restored in the city, about 40
industrial enterprises, artels and workshops were operating. Among them
are the Krasny Metallist artel (nowadays a machine-tool accessories
plant), an engine repair plant (now an auto-aggregate plant), the
Kommunarka artel (a former knitwear factory), the Voskhod artel (a
factory of art products), which today are one of the largest enterprises
in the city.
On January 8, 1954, the Baranovichi region was
liquidated, and its territory was included in the Brest region. Since
May 1954, the city of Baranovichi has become the center of the Novomysh
region, and since April 1957 - the Baranovichi region.
On March
14, 1962, the village of Zhlobin, Kolpenitsky village council,
Baranovichi district, Brest region, was included in the city limits of
the city of Baranovichi.
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the
liberation of the city of Baranovichi from German occupation in the
summer of 1964, the Eternal Flame was lit and a monument to the
Liberation was unveiled.
In 1970, there were 102 thousand
inhabitants in Baranovichi, in 2011 - 175 thousand inhabitants.
In 2012, the city included 11 settlements (Anisimovichi, Borovtsy,
Zvezdnaya, Uznogi, part of the agricultural town of Rusino and parts of
the villages of Antonovo, Girovo, Dubovo, Bolshaya Kolpenitsa, Malaya
Kolpenitsa, Priozernaya, Yanovo), previously belonging to the territory
of the Baranovichi district.
In 2016, the city of Baranovichi was
awarded the status of "Youth Capital of Belarus-2016". Baranovichi
became the first city in which the implementation of the Youth Capital
project began.
On May 17, 2019, Baranovichi took over the torch
relay of the II European Games.