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Viciebsk. Town photos from WWII period

Viciebsk - travel guide - photos and attractions

The first written mention: 974

Spelling variations:
Віцебск Витебск Witebsk Viciebsk Vitebsk

Coordinates:
55° 11'34.84"N, 30° 12'21.41"E

What to see:

Lost heritage

Histrory of Viciebsk

Vitsebsk or Viciebsk - Belarusian: Віцебск (Vitsyebsk); Polish: Witebsk; Russian: Витебск (Vityebsk, commonly anglicized as Vitebsk) - is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia and Latvia. The capital of the Vitsebsk voblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants.

History

Vitsebsk developed from a river harbour where the Vitba (Віцьба, from which it derives its name) flows into the larger Daugava (in Belarusian, Dzvina). Its mention in historical records dates from 1021, but its official founding year is 974, when Princess Olga of Kiev ordered a city to be founded on the site of an old Krivichi settlement.

In the 12th and 13th centuries it was a well-established city on the crossroads of the river routes between the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean seas. In this period, it was governed by veche. In 1320 it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; in 1569 it became a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1597 Vitebsk was granted the Magdeburg Rights. In 1772 it was taken over by Russia in the First Partition of Poland.

Under Imperial Russia it was a significant shtetl in the Pale of Settlement, with around half its population Orthodox Jewish at the turn of the 20th century.

In the years 1919-1991 it belonged to the Soviet Union; since 1991 it has been a part of independent Belarus. In 1941-1944 during World War II, the city was under German occupation, much of the old city being destroyed in ensuing battles with the Red Army.

In January 1991, Vitsebsk celebrated the first Marc Chagall Festival. In June 1992, a monument to Chagall was erected on his native Pokrovskaja street and a memorial inscription placed on the wall of his house.

Since 1992, Vitsebsk has hosted the annual Slavic Bazaar, an international art festival. Its main programme is devoted to Slavic music. The main participants are artists from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with guests from many other countries, both Slavic and non-Slavic.

Famous inhabitants

Vitsebsk is the birthplace of:
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, physicist
S. Ansky, playwright, author of The Dybbuk
Marc Chagall, famous painter
Leon Kobrin, playwright
Immanuel Velikovsky, psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and controversial author
Kazimierz Siemienowicz, an engineer, pioneer of rocketry

Source:
Vitsebsk
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This text is taken from Wikipedia and published at Radzima.org according to GNU Free Documentation License

Viciebsk. : Places of interest | selected photos

Viciebsk. : Lost heritage | Photo

Viciebsk.  Orthodox church of St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Orthodox church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Viciebsk (photo from early XX century)

Viciebsk.  Catholic church and Monastery of Piarists Catholic church and Monastery of Piarists

Сhurch of Piarists after rebuild into Evangelical Lutheran Church

Viciebsk.  Synagogue Great Synagogue Great

Great synagogue of Viciebsk at postcard from early XX cent. (www.szukamypolski.com)

Viciebsk.  Orthodox church of St. George Orthodox church of St. George

Orthodox church of St. George in Viciebsk. Drawing by Петрашевич
(Library of Vilnius University)

Viciebsk.  Orthodox church of the Resurrection Orthodox church of the Resurrection

Orthodox church of the Resurrection in Viciebsk

Viciebsk.  Synagogue Synagogue

Synagogue at the Suvorov street. Postcard from the 1900th

Viciebsk.  Orthodox church of St. Nicholas Orthodox church of St. Nicholas

Orthodox church of St. Nicholas in Viciebsk
(Library of Vilnius University)

Comments

Тихий Дмитрий, калі ласка, калі дадаеце выявы зь Беларускай Вікіпэдыі, пазначайце сапраўдную крыніцу здымка - Казімер Ляхновіч, Беларуская Вікіпэдыя (be-tarask.Wikipedia.org) ...
Niezwykle ciekawa historia klasztoru i kościoła pod wezwaniem św. Antoniego Padewskiego obwodu witebskiego

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