Spaso-Voznesensky the temple in Gardeners

The village of Vezhka of Zhabinkovsky district — one of the oldest settlements of the western part of Beresteyshchina. The written mention belongs to 1597 when the royal auditor carried out the inventory of the Vezhitsky yard. Here some data from there: "In the village of Vezhka two streets — Matyasovskaya and Pestenetskaya. In the estate were brewery, ledovnya, svironka, a bath, brovar, a lodge for servants, a new lodge for the village constable. All constructions are covered with a shingle. In the master's house tiled furnaces. There is an apiary. The yard has 23 drag arable lands and 30 dragged a haymaking. There is a water-mill on the small river with the name Balakhva".

The village Gardeners is mentioned in the next neighbourhood from Vezhek. It was formed thanks to land reform when from the Vezhitsky yard separated 10 families and gave them an allotment on kitchen gardens. There was it somewhere in 1557. Also near Vezhek was the yard estate Kivatichi which is mentioned in documents of 1532. Nikolay Patsu possessed it once, is later than him to the son Dominica, a podkomoriya to Beresteysky.

Today from all manor only the churchyard on a hillock in the center of the village Kivatichi remained. Near a churchyard there was a church in honor of apostles Pyotr and Pavel constructed by descendants Patsev in 1610. This church was burned with a lightning stroke in 1798.

To the 1845th it was built up. It was finally destroyed during World War II. Only the belfry which was repaired remained. Nowadays here the Orthodox church works. A churchyard Kivatichey really excites imagination. These burials — a particle of life and history of our edge. There such unique gravestone sculptures from cast iron and a stone! Perfectly remained. Inscriptions in Polish are easily read.

The neighboring village of Krivlyana is interesting by ruins of the lock XVII of century. The lock is constructed near the marsh small river Balakhva. Chartoryyskiye's princes were his owners. Today from the lock there were only a base, shaft and parts of bastions. On zamchishche it is possible to find a glazed tile and ceramics. In total lock together with a garden occupied about 10 hectares.

Maria Zygmunt, later Maria Russovskaya were owners of a vezhkovsky manor in the XVII century (parents both are buried in Kivatichakh). In 1876 Maria Hersonskaya owned a manor. After war of 1812 the village took over Karol Shpakovsky. In 1820-22 in our corner of the world there was a big crop failure, because of it hunger and a murrain. But it almost did not concern Vezhki's estate. Reasonable housekeeping allowed to avoid hunger.

By this time Shpakovsky managed to build the original wooden house, constructed sugar plant, having organized courses for workers of new production. Put park, separate trees remained still. Later the estate will be sold out. The part of lands will be bought Domazhskiye, part — the corporal from Kaments Ivan Kitasovsky. By the way, the grandson his Vladimir is the famous poet writing in the Russian and Ukrainian languages.

Temple
The first mention of the Vezhkovsky Orthodox church is dated 1668 when the great Polish hetman Jan Sobessky approved the Charter of Vezhkovsky Sacred Church of the Assumption. It occurred by the end of military fight between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Sweden. Military operations with variable success lasted more than ten years. The second written mention of the temple is dated 1789 when the king the Polish and grand duke Lithuanian Stanislav Augustus Ponyatovsky gave a consent and the diploma to the priest Jan Zheleznevich to be a prior of this temple.

In 1943 this church burned down. And in the 1947th, despite war, hunger, the ruin believing the villages of Vezhka and Gardeners raised money and restored the temple. Also this churchlet staid the whole 53 years!

It is not excluded that for one hundred years the temple was under repair, it was from a tree. There are interesting written certificates of 1868 that then the priest Pyotr Kotovich was a prior of the temple. It is known that he was born in 1842 in Volchin (the village in 20 kilometers from Brest). Ended the Lithuanian theological seminary in 1863, later taught in Kobrin spiritual school (the being Spassky monastery, in 2009 is returned to Church).

Two sons — Ivan and Anton were born in Vezhkakh in a family of the priest. It is authentically known that a prior in vezhkovsky church the father Pyotr Kotovich was 13 years, and it is possible, and more. By the end of H_H of a century the church in Vezhkakh grew old and did not accomodate believers any more. Therefore in the 1912th year it was reconstructed and consecrated already in honor of Ascension. By this time the village Gardeners connected to Vezhkami where the national school, in Gardeners two-cool school at that time worked. Believers was about 2000.

The XX century
World War I reached Vezhek in the fall of 1915. But in the 1914th martial law was declared here. All settlements in the district were filled by military. And when kayzerovets began approach, the imperial government issued the decree on evacuation of the civilian population.

Left to Germans "scorched earth" — villages, estates burned. The church in Vezhkakh God's favor stood. Of course, it was not passed by kayzerovsky troops. There are data that in 1915-18 in church the German military hospital was placed. The building was new, wooden, with oven heating. When in 1990-97 works on construction of the new brick building of the temple were conducted, at excavation of the base found many human remains.

It were burials of kayzerovsky soldiers. In three years of occupation many of them died and were buried near the temple. Their remains reburied. Once during construction works of new church the crane began to fail. As it appeared, it was the crypt in which there were several coffins. Inscriptions were not.

There is an assumption that this burial of princes Chartoryysky. When military fights — World War I, the Polish-Russian war of 1920 ended — and inhabitants Vezhek returned to the houses, they anew built up the temple. By 1925 he rose as the Phoenix from ashes — big, beautiful blue color, three-dome. Its domes sheathed by copper were visible from many neighboring villages.

All this magnificence burned down for the fourth day of Easter of 1943. At a mass and memorial service there was a lot of praying (despite occupational regime of fascists, divine services were conducted). There were on service also people from Glinyanok. After church service all went to a local cemetery that in couple of kilometers from church. Did not manage to approach a cemetery as it was necessary to run back — over church the flame stormed.

Something was managed to be taken out from fire, but a lot of things burned down. From the temple there were ashes. And it happened here that. Politsa stopped by in the neighboring village in a family with three marriageable daughters. Having become slightly tight, they arranged firing competition, and as a target church robbers chose a dome of church. And one of girls did not miss an incendiary bullet …

People still remember names of these "heroes". But despite the war, hunger, ruin believing the villages of Vezhka and Gardeners raised money and in 1947 restored church. For the sake of it the small structure of some forest department was bought. Also this churchlet staid the whole 53 years! Well I remember it when it already was the big brick temple which was again under construction in the 1990th inside. The new three-dome church with a belfry was consecrated on November 7, 1997 by the Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret. Nowadays and nearly 20 years Spaso-Voznesensky's prior of the temple is the father Mikhail Kontsevich.