Byaroza (Kartuz-Byaroza or Kartuzskaya Byaroza, Belor. Byaroza;
until 1940 it was called Beryoza-Kartuzskaya, Polish. Bereza
Kartuska) - a city in Polesie, on the Yaselda river.
It is
the administrative center of the Berezovsky district of the Brest
region of Belarus. As of January 1, 2020, the city's population was
28,500 people.
The coat of arms of the city of Birch is a
shield, in the blue field of which a silver gate is depicted. In the
lower part of the field there is a silver tip, accompanied by two
wavy belts: the upper one is silver, the lower one is blue.
The coat of
arms was officially approved by the Decree of the President of the
Republic of Belarus No. 659 of December 2, 2008.
The first mention of the village of Byaroza dates back to 1477, when the owner of the village Jan Hamshey founded the Church of the Holy Trinity here. At the end of the 15th century, Byaroza became a trading city, receiving a city charter and the right to host a weekly fair. Between 1538 and 1600 it was a major center of Calvinism.
In 1617, Byaroz became the property of the
Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Lev Sapieha, who first of
all founds a new Catholic church here (the former, after being in
the hands of the Calvinists for more than half a century, finally
became impoverished). In 1629, Sapega also allowed local Jews to
open a school and a synagogue. At this time, a Uniate church already
existed in the city.
After his death in 1633, Byaroza by will
passed to his eldest son Jan Sapega, Marshal of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, and then to his younger brother, Kazimierz Lev Sapega.
Kazimier Lev Sapega inherited from his father not only the
ability for government affairs and an outstanding mind, but also
deep piety. During his life, he founded many churches and
monasteries, one of which was the Carthusian monastery in Byaroz.
The corner stone of the church was solemnly laid in 1648.
Construction was prevented by the misfortunes that fell on the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the same year - the beginning of
the Cossack war and the death of the Polish king Vladislav IV. Only
on January 3, 1650, the act of founding a monastery of the
Carthusian (Carthusian) monastic order was signed in Warsaw. The
construction of the monastery was carried out by an unknown Italian
architect and was completed in 1689.
In connection with the
emergence of the monastery, the city, which was transferred to it,
received its second name - Beryoza-Kartuska (Polish: Bereza
Kartuska). The monastery contributed to the development of local
trade and crafts. Gradually expanding, the monastery became one of
the largest in the entire Rzeczpospolita. The monastic complex
included a church building, monastic cells, a refectory, a library,
a hospital, a pharmacy, and outbuildings. The complex was equipped
with a defensive system: the monastery with an adjoining garden and
a pond was surrounded by a moat filled with water and a stone wall
with watchtowers. In the middle of the courtyard, adjacent to the
apse of the church, there was a high bell tower with thick walls and
many tiers for placing cannon guns. In 1680, Jews were allowed to
build a house of worship and conduct their services without
hindrance.
In 1706 the monastery was
besieged, after which it was taken by storm, set on fire and
plundered by the troops of the Swedish king Charles XII. Two years
later, Swedish troops once again plundered the city, which led to
its almost complete devastation. The city was also damaged by
Russian troops under the command of Alexander Suvorov in 1772,
during the first partition of Poland.
After the third
partition of the Rzecz Pospolita, the city, together with the
monastery, passed to the Russian Empire and entered the Pruzhany
district of the Slonim, then the Lithuanian and even later Grodno
province.
During the suppression of the Polish uprising of
1830-1831, the city was occupied by Russian troops.
The
ensemble of the monastery existed in its original form until 1863.
As punishment for the active participation of the Cartesian monks in
the Polish uprising of 1863, the Russian authorities closed the
monastery, and in 1866 the monastery complex was partially
destroyed, and the bricks were used to build the "red barracks" and
the Orthodox church in Beryoz. The church located on the territory
of the monastery was destroyed in 1868.
The city entered the
so-called "Pale of Settlement" and was settled by Jews resettled
from other regions of the Russian Empire. In 1931, they accounted
for 52.2% of the 4521 inhabitants. In 1871, the Warsaw-Moscow
railway was laid near the city, connecting the city with the
neighboring large cities of Brest-Litovsk and Smolensk. In 1878 the
city had seven streets and about 200 houses. The population of the
city and the surrounding area was about 5000 people. The city had a
Catholic church, an Orthodox church and several synagogues.
In 1906, during the First Russian Revolution, riots
broke out among the soldiers of the Pyatigorsk 151st Infantry
Regiment, stationed in Bereza-Kartuzskaya.
In 1915, during
the First World War, the city was captured by Germany and found
itself outside the political and revolutionary processes taking
place in the Russian Empire. The German occupation lasted until
January 19, 1919, when the city was briefly occupied by the Red
Army, already on February 14, 1919, as a result of the battle for
Bereza-Kartuzskaya, it was repulsed by the Poles. During the
Soviet-Polish war, the city twice became the arena of battles, in
July 1920 it was again occupied by the Red Army, but at the end of
the war, like the rest of Western Belarus, went to Poland.
From June 1934 to September 17, 1939, the buildings of the former
Soviet barracks were used to house a camp for opponents of the
ruling regime. It was headed by the police inspector Jan Greffner
from Poznan. According to Polish sources, the camp held up to 800
people. In Soviet sources, the camp was called “concentration camp,”
and its existence was considered evidence of the “fascist” nature of
the sanitation regime. According to Soviet data, by the beginning of
1938, the number of prisoners here exceeded 7 thousand.
In
September 1939, the city, along with all of Western Belarus, was
annexed to the USSR, and on June 23, 1941 it was occupied by the
advancing German troops.
Before the start of the Great
Patriotic War, the share of Jews in the city's population was 80%.
During the war, a ghetto was created in the city for Jews, who,
among other things, were brought here from neighboring areas. More
than 8 thousand Jews died here in massacres and starved to death.
After the war, the city became part of the USSR, and the
remaining Polish population was evicted to Polish territory. The
Jewish community was not restored. The remains of the walls of the
Carthusian monastery remained in a dilapidated state.