The architect who designed and built the Nesvizh far church. Nesvizh

The second time the coffins were opened in 1953, immediately after the death of Stalin (this is exactly what the residents of Nesvizh remember. - Auth.). In order to keep the body of the leader intact, Soviet scientists, led by Professor V.F. Chervakov, looked for the most advanced methods of embalming.

Hoping to find a unique recipe for mummification, scientists descended into the four-hundred-year-old tomb of the Radziwills. It was as if several coffins and a barrel with the embalmed heart of Princess Radziwill were opened. But did the Nesvizh secrets help to support the body of the leader of all peoples?

Moth left Pane Kahanka without pants

In the National Library of Belarus, I managed to find a publication of 1971, which tells about the results of those studies. It is curious that even the date of the invasion of the crypt was deliberately distorted. Apparently, so that the opening of the coffins is not associated with the death of a tyrant - 1951. An amazing story was invented: a request was made from Nesvizh to the Ministry of Health of the BSSR: are the remains in the basement of the church dangerous?

The first commission from Moscow opened the oldest coffin - Nikolai Krzysztof Radziwill the Orphan. Scientists expected to see a mummy in a pilgrim's cloak - so the prince himself bequeathed. Instead, a different picture opened up: the mummy was covered with a piece of crimson satin, there was a red velvet cap on its head, a white silk shirt on its body, and white machine-knitted stockings on its legs. Under the head lay a canvas pillow stuffed with undecayed hay, and under it ... a crumpled medical gown and a white kid glove with a spring-loaded clasp, on which the Parisian brand was listed.

All these items belonged clearly to 1905. The commission dressed Orphan!.. Soviet scientists wondered why.

The answer was found quickly. At the bottom of the coffin lay a lot of dry moths and small black hairs. The famous pilgrim's cloak was destroyed by a moth!.. It did not spare the mummy either: according to scientists, a skeleton with remnants of dried tissues remained from it.

The Radziwills' recipe was not unique

The opening of several other coffins made it possible to quite accurately establish the method by which the Radziwill doctors embalmed the deceased owners. At that time, according to Christian canons, the autopsy of the deceased was strictly prohibited. Therefore, court healers lubricated the body of the deceased with "balsams" (balms) and resinous odorous substances, without performing an autopsy, without removing the internal organs.

In this case, ointments were applied only to the front surface. The tissues dried out, and the upper body was preserved, forming a kind of hardened dome. The lower part dried up and fell apart.

So did the commission find what it wanted - the secret of embalming Belarusian magnates?.. It's hard to answer. The findings showed that there was no special secret - the doctors simply relied on the knowledge and experience available at that time.

Sealed sarcophagi did not dare to open

It is noteworthy that in the 19th century the Radziwills completely stopped embalming the bodies of their deceased family members. Another method began to be used: the body of the deceased - without special treatment - was simply sealed in hermetic zinc coffins.

Being in such a coffin, the dead body continues to rot until the released gases create the ultimate pressure at which the decomposition process stops. Even after many years, through the thick ship glass soldered into the lid, you can see the face of the deceased.

In 1953, scientists did not open any of these sarcophagi. They already had a sad experience when, during the opening of the sealed coffin of the composer Nikolai Rubinstein, delivered from Paris to Moscow, the body crumbled literally before our eyes.

Where did the Radziwills get the recipe for mummification?

The most likely version is in Egypt. In 1583 Nikolai Krzysztof Radziwill the Orphan traveled to Italy, Jerusalem and Egypt.

In her famous book Peregrines, Orphan quite accurately describes appearance mummies, noting that “pink greens and masses are so sintered whole that they are very bright, as if smeared with zatsvyardzeushy ... bones of those whole ones and white nadta, more fragrant masses and hellish sharnennya their baronies ...” “... smeared three thousand you bastard lie down.”

Leaving Cairo, Radziwill decides to take a few mummies with him and buys two embalmed bodies from the Arabs - a man and a woman. But it was impossible to carry them in their entirety: it was believed that a mummy on a ship could bring death to this ship. Therefore, each body was divided into three parts, each of which was packed in a separate box.

Already when the mummies were loaded onto the ship and the ship was waiting for a fair wind, a terrible storm arose. The sailors began to panic: they say, we will all die. Unable to withstand the psychological attack, the Orphan orders all the boxes to be thrown into the sea.

The orphan did not bring the mummy to Nesvizh, but brought the very idea of ​​embalming.

The permission to create the tomb was given personally by the Pope

The Nesvizh Church of the Body of God will celebrate its 415th anniversary this year. The church was built by the brilliant Italian architect Giovanni Maria Bernardoni.

To establish a tomb, Orphan went to ask permission from the Pope. The Pope gave his blessing. Thus, the third family tomb in Europe appeared in Nesvizh after the tomb of Louis in France and the Habsburgs in Austria.

When founding the family shrine, Orphan laid down two rules. First: only the Radziwills should rest in the crypt (it must be said that Orphan himself violated it - a faithful servant later lay at his feet). Second: all the dead are buried in simple clothes, without decorations. Thanks to this wise law, which everyone knew about, for centuries the tomb was not plundered - there was no reason for treasure hunters to open coffins for the sake of mummies.

The first Radziwill buried in the crypt was Sirotka himself; it happened on February 28, 1616.

The tomb was saved by Kennedy and Mussolini

During the Second World War, the Germans did not touch the property of the princes due to the fact that one of the Radziwills became related to Mussolini. The Italian dictator, being an ally of Hitler, contributed to the preservation of the possessions of the Belarusian magnates. Nesvizh old-timers recall that the Germans posted constant guards at the entrance to the crypt to protect the family crypt from vandals.

In the 60s, another Radziwill family helped: a descendant of a princely family, the 35th president of America. In the church archive, letters from the US State Department are still stored, where it is said: if they will close it - write.

The Communists survived priest Grigory Kolosovsky from the church, he lived in a garage. But they were afraid to close it, the priest immediately said: "I will write."

Crypto Legends

Perhaps the most legendary coffin in the tomb is a humpbacked one (a lid with a “hump”). According to legend, a young princess is buried here, who froze to death while waiting in the park for her lover. Her stiff body could not be placed in the coffin.

An autopsy showed that there was another one in the coffin, where the 74-year-old Princess Karnitskaya-Radziwill was buried. And an elegant vase was attached to the lid - for this, the outer coffin had to be made with a “hump”.

By the way, it was precisely because of this vase that the body of the deceased was not preserved: the hermeticity of the coffin was broken, and the deceased simply “crumbled”.

Near one of the sarcophagi stands an iron barrel with handles. According to legend, the remains of a prince who was torn to pieces by a bear lie here. The beast cut the man so badly that everything that was left of him was put into such a container.

But this legend, too, was debunked. In the barrel, in a special solution, were the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. In the 19th century, an autopsy was already done. One of the Radziwills forbade the removal of his wife's internal organs: "I cannot allow the heart that loved me so much to be simply thrown away." On the coffin of his beloved, he forged an epitaph: "Everything except life, I owe only to you."

The extreme side room of the crypt makes you shudder: there are 2 adult coffins and 12 children's coffins. Here lies the unfortunate mother Katarzyna Radziwiłł. During her life she buried 5 children and 7 grandchildren. According to another version, in all 12 coffins are the children of the princess. They say that on a moonlit night, inhuman cries are heard near the church - this is the soul of Katarzyna, turning into an owl, inconsolably crying for dead babies.

Another legend is connected with the number of coffins. In 1905, the commission counted 78 coffins in the crypt. The Polish monograph of 1937 says about 102. Now there are 70 coffins.

According to one version, some of the sarcophagi were lost during the war. According to another, there is another underground floor in the crypt: in some places the floor is too noisy. But it is impossible to verify this version, since no one dares to blow up the floor in the church, which is a unique architectural monument. And suddenly there is just emptiness! The monument will be destroyed.

Mummies of the Radzivils are not the only ones in Belarus

For example, in the dungeon of the church in Budslav (Myadel district), you can directly open coffins to see two well-preserved mummies, which practically did not dry up!.. But even the rector of the church does not know who is buried here. There are as many mummies as the church built in 1767.

Burials, which are several centuries old, can be found in the cellars of the church in Kamaiy (Postavsky district), Vishnevo (Volozhinsky district), Subbotniki (Ivyevsky district), Zasvir (Myadelsky district) ...

Nesvizh is a city-legend, a fairy-tale city, a city-dream. There are few such cities, and all of them are significant in Belarusian history - Polotsk (the capital of the Principality of Polotsk - the first state formation on the territory of Belarus), Novogrudok (the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), Krakow, Grodno, Vilnia, Prague ...

Even the time of the appearance of Nesvizh is shrouded in mystery. For a long time it was believed that the city was founded in 1223 - you will see this date even today at the entrance to the city. According to the annalistic mention, on May 31, 1223, on the Kalka River in Ukraine, a battle took place between the Russian and Polovtsian troops and the Tatar-Mongols, when “Prince Yuri Nesvezhsky” died. Historians mistakenly decided that since Nesvezhsky, it means that they are from Nesvizh. Later it turned out that that "Yuri Nesvezhsky" was probably from the Ukrainian city of Nesvich, which is similar in sound.

Another, more plausible date for the founding of Nesvizh is 1446, when Nesvizh is mentioned in the annals due to the fact that Grand Duke Kazimir Jagiellonchik gave it to Mikolay Jan Nemirovich. However, it is clear that it is difficult for a Nesvizhan to get used to the idea that the city is two centuries younger. This is how the number "1223" of the townspeople and guests greets. However, from such “rejuvenation” this glorious city does not become less interesting or attractive for researchers, tourists and lovers of antiquity.

At first, the city belonged to the Nemirovichs, then to the Kishki, from 1513 - invariably to the Radziwills. The significance of Nesvizh especially increases in 1586, when the Nesvizh ordination of the Radziwills appeared - an indivisible possession, which was transferred only from father to eldest son.

Therefore, having heard the name Nesvizh, any educated person will immediately respond: “Radziwills!” And will not be mistaken.

Radziwills

As long as Nesvizh will exist, so much will it thank the Radziwills. This great family, according to legend, originates from the mythical ancestor Lizdzeika, who advised (Belarusian “radziu”) the Grand Duke Gedymin to found the capital (Vilna) at the place where the prince had a prophetic dream about a snarling wolf. In gratitude for valuable advice, Gedymin ordered that Lizdziike be measured out as much land as long as the sound of a hunting trumpet was heard - this is how the Radziwills found

coat of arms "Pipes" (1413). The legend of Lizdziyk was even described in Pan Tadeusz by the great Adam Mickiewicz.

According to a more plausible version, it all began with the Vilna castellan Christina Oscik (circa 1363 - around 1443), who named his son Radziwill. Later the name became a surname. A surname that will sound loudly on the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth for many centuries.

This glorious princely family took possession of the city in 1533, when Jan Radziwill the Bearded married Anna from the Kishek family. Jan Radziwill was a brave knight, a confidant of King Zhigimont I the Old. The son of Jan Radziwill, Mikolay Radziwill Cherny, became chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Vilna voivode. His cousin Barbara Radziwill married the Polish king and Grand Duke Zhigimont II August. Thus, the owner of Nesvizh, in fact, intermarried with the Jagiellons themselves...

The heyday of Nesvizh occurred during the time of Prince Mikolay Krishtof Radziwill Sirotka, son of Mikolay Chorny.

The city received the Magdeburg right (the right to self-government) - the Orphan himself drew up the corresponding privileges and signed it at the Grodno Seim on June 24, 1586 with King Stefan Batory. Thanks to the Magdeburg Law, the city received a town hall, to which we will return. Today, by the way, it is the oldest town hall in Belarus.

Following the town hall, the construction of a majestic church, a monastery is underway, a castle is being actively built, other stone structures appear in the city: Sirotka made a stone one from a wooden Nesvizh.

Orphan's wisdom was that he did not save money for the sake of money, but invested in himself, in honor and, saying modern language, brand of a kind. It was he who laid the foundation for the glory and dignity of the family, whose name has been heard in the vastness of Europe for six centuries.

However, this great family: from 1466 to the present day, this family has given the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Commonwealth more than 40 senators, as well as chancellors, marshals, hetmans, governors, bishops ...

All the rulers of Nesvizh, without exception, left a good memory, but most (after Orphan) - Michal Kazimir Radziwill "Rybonka" and his wife Franciska Urszulya from the Vishnevetsky house. Rybonka practically completed the construction of the castle (which was completed by his son Pane Kohanka), financed the painting of the church. Franciska Ursula founded a theater in Nesvizh, wrote 16 plays for it and 14 sketches for the scenography of these productions...

Many books and monographs have already been written about the Radziwill family, and there will be even more - so great are his deeds and enormous achievements. “Bognamradzi” (“God advises us”, Belarusian “radzits”) is the motto of the Radziwill family, inscribed on their coat of arms. And this motto has never failed.

Church of the Body of God(1589-1593)

Church, bell tower and town hall

Church

Church and chapel of St. Roja

St. Catherine of Alexandria

The Church of the Body of God is an equally great shrine for the Radziwill family, and for all the peoples of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and for every believer.

On August 19, 1584, Sirotka signed the act of founding the Jesuit Collegium in Nesvizh. The parish shrine, the construction of which began as early as 1583 on the site of a wooden church, was given to the Jesuits. It was decided to rebuild it, for which the temple was dismantled within 2 years. The Church of the Body of God, erected on this site later, began to serve not only as a Jesuit church, but later as a parish church.

In terms of architecture, this is the first completely baroque building in Eastern Europe and the second in the world. In addition, the temple is also notable for the fact that in 420 years of its existence it has never been closed. For the Radziwill family, this is a family tomb, where representatives of the family have rested since 1616 and up to the present day. At one time, the crypt of the Nesvizh church became the third family tomb in Europe (after the tomb of the Bourbons in France (Saint-Denis Abbey) and the Habsburgs in Austria (Capuchinkirche in Vienna)). Prince Mikolaj Krishtof Radziwill “The Orphan” received permission to create a tomb personally from the Pope, since at that time it was considered unacceptable for the dead to remain after death not buried in the ground, but on the surface.

Speaking about the architectural aspect, one cannot ignore the phenomenal personality of the architect Giovanni Maria Bernardoni. As we already know, in 1582-84 Orphan went on a pilgrimage to Egypt, the Holy Land and Italy. Having seen the best examples of advanced European architecture there, Radziwill decided to make Nesvizh no worse. To do this, in Rome, Sirotka invites a young Jesuit architect, Bernard Doni, to come to Nesvizh. He agrees and promises to come to Nesvizh after Orphan. However, the road from Rome to Nesvizh takes several years. For a long time it remained a mystery why the architect traveled for so long, but Belarusian architecture researcher Tamara Gabrus solved this mystery... by looking at the map of Europe! It turned out that Bernardoni, who was a Jesuit, did not stay in hotels on the way, but in the monasteries and missions of the Jesuits. And almost everywhere, trivially speaking, the same story happened to him. The Jesuit fathers unanimously said to the talented architect: “Build us a church, and then you will go further!” It turned out that on the way from Rome to Nesvizh, Bernardoni left several beautiful churches in memory of himself. Giovanni made the last stop before Nesvizh in Grodno, on the territory of Belarus. King Stefan Batory also persuaded the architect to "build a kos-tel" - which is known to us as the stone Fara Vitovt (destroyed by the communists in 1961).

However, when Giovanni Maria Bernardoni finally reached Nesvizh, Orphan did not let him go for 13 whole years!

First of all, the former, unfinished temple was dismantled, which seemed “small” to the Radziwills. On September 14, 1589, the cornerstone of the new church was laid, which was consecrated by the Bishop of Vilna, Cardinal Yuri Radziwill of Krakow. The exact date is known thanks to a memorial plaque on the wall of the church. Bernardoni erects a majestic and sublime stone temple, the prototype for which, in a sense, was the Basilica of Il Gesu in Rome: erected in 1568-1584, it set the motive for subsequent Jesuit temples. Giovanni was given freedom of creativity, and he built the most beautiful baroque temple (1589-1593), which became a miracle and a breakthrough in architecture for our lands at that time. A massive tower arose in front of the church - now the bell tower, which in itself is a wonderful monument of architecture.

In addition to the church in Nesvizh, the outstanding architect probably built churches in Vilna, Novy Sverzhen, Chernavchitsy, near Brest, the village of Derevnoye near Stolbtsy ... Having finally left Nesvizh, Bernardoni went to Krakow, where he built ... an exact copy of the church in Nesvizh! And today, the Church of Peter and Paul, in whose crypt the great theologian Piotr Skarga is buried, differs from the Nesvizh only in decor... There, in Krakow, Bernardo-ni died, having managed to build the church under the dome - his students were already completing the top ... An interesting and little-known fact: the dome of the Nesvizh church was also erected not by Bernardoni, but by the architect Giuseppe Brisio, invited from Italy...

Church interior

Presbytery

Fresco

Fresco inside the dome

Fresco inside the dome

Fresco

The interior of the temple is no less admirable than its appearance: Baroque features are continued and even strengthened here. After the construction of the temple, work began on its interior decoration. On the left side, an altar of the Holy Cross was created from white, pink and black marble. The Italian sculptor Girolama Company and the architect Cesare Franco worked on it. The altar rises exactly above the entrance to the tomb of the Radziwills. Interesting fact: originally this altar was supposed to be the main one in the smaller temple that was dismantled. And then he was placed on the side in the new church.

In the middle of the 17th century, during the Polish-Swedish war, the interiors of the temple were badly damaged, miraculously only stone altars and tombstones survived. Throughout the second half of the 17th century, the temple stood simply whitewashed, both outside and inside. Large-scale work began in the first half of the 18th century: the ceilings from the side aisles were removed, due to which the visual volume of the church increased significantly; at the same time, in the middle of the 18th century, frescoes and the main altar image “The Last Supper” were created. On the engraving by Hirsch Leibovich of 1747, all this is not yet there.

It must be said that biblical stories performed so sublimely and subtly that they create an impression of awe and triumph. Here you want to be silent or pray. The interior decoration of the temple is in itself a magnificent phenomenon. It is worth noting that if the appearance of the temple has remained unchanged for 420 years, then inside each of the princes could carefully bring something of his own, or it was done directly by the grateful parishioners themselves.

Admiration is caused by columns and arches under the very dome of the temple. Especially when you understand, or at least guess, that they are just drawn on a plane! It was done so voluminously and believably!.. In the main altar there is an icon “The Last Supper”, which reminds us of the last supper of Christ, and it is in the name of God's Body that the temple is named. As we remember, the bread was changed into the Body of God, and the wine into the Blood. This eternal plot creates a magnificent accent of the temple, concentrating all other application plots around itself. By the way, this image, like the church frescoes, was created in 1752 by Xavier Dominik Geski and his son Jozef Xavier, court painters of the Radziwills.

Icons of Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier took their places in the side altars. The colors of all the frescoes were updated at the very beginning of the 20th century, the Krakow masters Bruzdovich, Matejko and Strainovsky worked on this. By the time the work on the decoration of the temple was completed, it was already called the "wonder of the world" - for its incredible magnificence. The rector of the Novogrudok Jesuit Collegium wrote in 1752: "You will travel around the whole world, but you will not find such beauty."

Since Mykolaj Kryshtof Radziwill "The Orphan" was not only a man of humanistic views, but also a modern man, it was logical that after his death a bas-relief to the fundator appeared directly in the temple itself. Although such "secular" things were not welcomed and therefore were not widely distributed. The gravestone of the Orphan, made of sandstone, depicts him at the time of prayer, in the cloak of a pilgrim, which he wore during the entire pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land. Behind the back of the Orphan is an image of knightly armor. And the epitaph, which the prince himself allegedly composed before his death: “In the face of death, no one is a knight ...” (By the way, the coffin of the Orphan in the tomb stands exactly under this tombstone). Nearby are monuments to the dead children of Orphan: Mikolaj (died as a child) and Crisztof Mikolaj, who died in 1607 from the plague in Bologna. The epitaph states: "died of abdominal pain at the age of 16 years, 10 months, 3 days and 13 hours."

In the 20th century, several memorial plaques appeared in the church: in 1902, fans of the writer Vladislav Syrokomlya (Ludwig Kondratovich) dedicated a memorial plaque to him on the fortieth anniversary of his death; Syrokomlya, whose life and work is closely connected with Nesvizh, got married in this church in 1844. In the 1930s, a memorial plaque appeared to Edward Voinilovich, a great friend of the Radziwills, the founder of the Red Church in Minsk. In 2006, the parishioners created, to the left of the entrance to the church (on the outer wall), a commemorative plaque to Priest Grzegorz Kolosowski (1909-1991), who served in this church from 1939 as a vicar, and in 1941-1991 as rector. Priest Kolosovsky saved the church from fire during the war and from destruction during the Soviet era.

Generally speaking, the interior decoration of the Church of the Body of God can be safely called one of the outstanding museums of the artistic European tradition of its time.

Tomb of the Radziwills (1616)

Inside the tomb

Sarcophagi

tomb

tomb

Sarcophagi

Sarcophagi

Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

Sarcophagi

Sarcophagus

As we have already learned, the family tomb of the Radziwills in the crypt of the Church of the Body of God has become the third largest family tomb in Europe. The first to rest here was Orphan himself. It is easy to remember the year of his death - the great Radziwill died in the same year as Shakespeare - in 1616. Creating a tomb, Orphan left two simple rules regarding the crypt: firstly, only the Radziwills should have been buried there; secondly, it was necessary to bury in simple attire and without wealth - so that after a century no one would be tempted to plunder the coffins. The orphan really rested in his pi-ligrim cloak - a symbol of a landmark journey through the Holy Land. The coffin of the prince was carried from the castle to the church by beggars from all over the area. But he violated the second rule ... Orphans himself! The fact is that the next person who died in the crypt was ... the faithful servant of the Orphan, who accompanied him on all his travels ...

Since that time, most of the representatives of the glorious family have found their last refuge in the crypt: today there are 72 coffins in the crypt (one of which, ritual, is empty). The urn with the ashes of the 72nd Radziwill - Prince Anthony, who lived in London - was walled up in the wall of the tomb in 2000 in accordance with his will. However, information about the number of coffins at different times was recorded completely different: in 1905, the commission counted 78 sarcophagi: in the Polish monograph of 1937, 102 coffins are mentioned; in Soviet times, there were supposedly 90 sarcophagi; even earlier it was called 120. What happened to the rest, and whether they were at all - there is no exact information. According to one of the versions, some of the sarcophagi disappeared during the war.

According to another, romantic, during the next threat to the mustache-toe, another floor was built under it, where part of the coffins was immured. And today, tourists, researchers and historians, once in the tomb, all stomp their feet with the same passion in the hope of discovering a resounding emptiness under the floor, which sometimes they even allegedly feel ...

It should be said that the history of several coffins is shrouded in legends. One of them is called "humped", because its cover is not flat, but triangular. According to legend, young Ludwika Radziwill rested here. Her father, Boguslav Radziwill, had already organized a ball to marry his daughter to an Austrian prince, but she loved another - a stableman, with whom she agreed to run straight from the ball. The father caught the stableman and put him in prison, and Ludwika, not knowing this, ran to the appointed place right in a ball gown and light shoes. Without waiting for her beloved, she froze, curled up on a stump - in this form, the princess was buried. However, when the sarcophagus was opened, it turned out that the 74-year-old Princess Adelia Karnitskaya-Radziwill was buried there. And the “humpback” of the sarcophagus received an absolutely real explanation: inside the wooden sarcophagus there was a zinc coffin, to the lid of which the master screwed ... a vase with an iron shining flame. According to one version, it was because of this that the body of the deceased was not preserved - by screwing the vase to the zinc coffin, the master broke the tightness of the burial, and the mummy crumbled literally before our eyes. In one of the updates of the crypt for the sarcophagus, another coffin was made, wooden. And to cover the vase, a lid of such an original shape was designed. (All this became known from an article by Moscow scientists in the Belarusian journal "Neman" No. 7/1971).

Another legend concerns a mysterious barrel located near one of the sarcophagi. The legend tells that the remains of Radziwill, who was killed by a bear while hunting, were buried there. In reality, the story turned out to be much more romantic. On the lid of the coffin, next to which there is a barrel, one can read: “I cannot allow the heart that loved me so much to be simply thrown away. I owe everything except my life only to you, ”and in a barrel in a special solution, the internal organs of Princess Radziwill are preserved - such was the order of her husband after her death ...

Returning to the creation of the Radziwill tomb, it is worth mentioning the method of mummification used here at different times. This, like many other things connected with the Radziwills, is also shrouded in myths and legends. According to the most probable version, Orphan brought the recipes for mummification from Egypt, from his landmark two-year journey. In the famous book “Peregrination”, Prince Radziwill quite accurately describes the appearance of the mummies, noting that “various potions and suits so sintered the bodies that they already glow like resin when hardened ... the bones of those bodies are whole and very white, because those suits are fragrant and protect them from blackening ... they have been smeared for three thousand thousand years.” Leaving Cairo, Radziwill decides to take a few mummies with him and buys two embalmed bodies from the Arabs - men and women. But it was impossible to carry them entirely on the ship - it was believed that the mummy could bring death to the ship. Therefore, each body was divided into thirds and packed in separate boxes.

Already when the mummies were on the ship, and the ship was waiting for a fair wind, a storm arose. The sailors began to panic: we will all die! Unable to withstand the psychological attack, Sirotka ordered all the boxes to be thrown into the sea. As a result, the prince did not bring the mummies themselves to Nesvizh, but brought the idea of ​​embalming.

The communists became interested in this idea in 1953: when Stalin died, the question arose of how to preserve the body of the leader for posterity, similarly with the corpse of Lenin. For this, a special commission from Moscow went to Nesvizh, headed by Professor V.F. Chervakov. The official version of the commission's arrival was ingeniously legalized: allegedly, complaints and requests were received from local residents to examine the mummies and find out if they are safe for the health of the local population ...

In 1971, when the cult of Stalin had long been debunked, and one could carefully talk about such things out loud, the materials of the expedition to Nesvizh were published in the press. However, even the date of her arrival was deliberately distorted: so that the study would not be associated with the death of the tyrant, the date was designated as 1951.

However, it is worth telling about this secret expedition in more detail. First of all, the commission opened the oldest coffin - Mykolaj Krishtof Radziwill "Orphans". Scientists expected to see the mummy in the clothes of a pilgrim - as indicated in the will. However, the picture was completely different: the mummy was covered with a piece of crimson satin, there was a red velvet cap on its head, a white silk shirt on its body, and white machine-knitted stockings on its legs. Under his head was a linen pillow stuffed with unripe hay, and a white kid glove with a spring-loaded clasp bearing the Paris brand. All these items clearly belonged to the time of the work of the first commission in 1905. Thus, it turned out that Orphan was dressed just then! .. Soviet scientists wondered: why? She did not spare the mummy either: as scientists testified, a skeleton with remnants of hardened tissue remained from her ...

Opened several other coffins made it possible to accurately determine the method by which Radziwill's doctors embalmed the dead. It should be noted that at that time, according to Christian canons, the autopsy of the dead was strictly prohibited, therefore, court healers smeared the body of the deceased with “balm” and resinous odorous substances - without performing an autopsy and without extracting the insides. At the same time, ointments were applied only to the front surface of the body: the tissues dried out, and the top of the body was preserved, creating a kind of hardened dome. The lower part shrank and crumbled.

Later, in the 19th century, the method of embalming changed and became more similar to conservation: the body of the deceased was simply soldered in a zinc coffin without special treatment, and it continued to decompose until a certain moment, until the gases created the ultimate pressure, at which the decay process stopped. Therefore, even many years * later, through the thick ship glass built into the lid, one could see the face of the deceased. Then, in 1953, scientists did not open any of these sarcophagi - they already had a sad experience when, when opening the coffin with the composer Nikolai Rubinstein, brought from Paris, the body crumbled literally before our eyes ...

As a result, the commission came to the conclusion that no supernatural secret exists - the doctors relied on the experience and knowledge that was quite accessible at that time.

Gleb Labadenka

Story

The first mention of Nesvizh is found in Russian chronicles in the 13th century, when it is said that Prince Yuri of Nesvizh took part in the Battle of the Kalka (1223). Dying from his wounds, he instructed his servant to get to Nesvizh and tell his wife and all those close to him how the prince had died. When the servant got out of the battlefield, he was pierced by an arrow - in the very heart, but he still got to the prince's castle and brought with him the tragic news of the death of the prince and the arrival of the Tatars in Rus'. After the inclusion of the lands of Belarus into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Nesvizh princes owned their inheritance from the 13th to the 15th centuries. provided they serve the prince. True, already in the 80s. of the last century, scientists proved that the city and the castle appeared here no earlier than the 15th century. Thus, the first written mention of the city is now considered to be 1446, when the chronicle tells about the transfer of the town of Nesvizh by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Kazimir Mykolaj Yan Nemirovich.

In 1492, Nesvizh passed into the possession of the Belarusian magnate Peter Kishka, and in 1513, when his daughter Anna became the wife of Jan Radziwill, the city as part of her dowry became the possession of the Radziwills. In 1547, the son of Anna and Jan, Nikolai Radziwill the Black, became the prince of the Holy Roman Empire and made Nesvizh his residence. In order to prevent the transfer of his possessions “by tow” (as part of a dowry), he establishes the right of a majorate - the title, land and all wealth are transferred to the eldest son. The rest of the male offspring had to either go to the monastery, or become knights in the army of some king. Thanks to this, Nesvizh remained the possession of the Radziwills until 1939.

Monument to Simeon Budny the Pioneer of Nesvizh

Printing house

The heyday of Nesvizh is associated with the name of Prince Nikolai Christopher Radziwill the Orphan, the son of Nikolai Radziwill the Black. Heir to a huge fortune, he could spend his life idly, but he travels through Europe and the Middle East, and even writes travel notes about what he saw. Having received from his father a wooden estate and a small town with it, he builds a stone castle, rebuilds the city, turning it into a European one: he frees the townspeople from many taxes and feudal duties, develops trade and crafts. In Nesvizh, a school, a hospital, weaving and tailoring, locksmith and furrier workshops were opened under him. In 1562, a printing house was opened, where the first books in the Belarusian language were published. A little later, the first Belarusian theater appeared here, and the cadet corps and the school of naval officers for the private army of Radziwill were also located in the city. In 1583, the construction of the Nesvizh Castle began, for which Italian craftsmen were involved. In a very short period of time (a little over 30 years), a castle and a city were built according to the latest fortification fashion.

“The city, which received the Magdeburg privilege (“the right of Saskoye Magdeburg”), deducted money for fortification work from its income. According to the articles of the Magdeburg law, watchdog, firefighting services and militia were organized in the city. All residents carried guard and defense duties, participated in military reviews (“policies”) and training (“drills”). By the end of the XVI century. city ​​fortifications were mostly built. An engraving by the Nesvizh cartographer Tomasz Makovsky, made around 1600, depicts Nesvizh, the basis of the defense of which was a high earthen rampart. It looked like a pentagon with 7 bastions, which covered the city from all sides.

They got inside through five gates-gates: Slutsk, Kletsk, Vilna, Mir and Castle. The city fortification was surrounded by a moat connected with the river Usha. There was a drawbridge in front of each gate. Not the last place in the defense of Nesvizh was occupied by 4 stone monastery - Benedictine, Jesuit, Bernardine and Dominican with complexes of buildings, placed in tactically important and advantageous places. They blocked the direct road to the castle and were a serious obstacle to the enemy. The moat around the city served another function: it was stocked with fish and turned into a practical fish nursery. However, it was forbidden for the townspeople to fish. The Radziwills ordered the lieutenant or the zeihgvart to strictly monitor this, authorizing them to take the nets from the townspeople.
M. A. Tkachev "Castles of Belarus"

During the Russian-Polish war, the castle withstood two long sieges by the Russian troops, who stormed Nesvizh itself, in 1654 and 1659. In 1706, Nesvizh, like the nearby Mir, was plundered by Swedish troops. After 15 years, it is restored, also erecting a palace chapel, then it acquired the appearance that we see today. In 1764 and 1768 Russian troops invaded here, in 1792 the castle was taken by Russian troops by storm, and after the partition of the Commonwealth in 1793, the city became part of the Russian Empire. In 1812, Dominic Jerome Radziwill took the side of the French army, after which he was forced to flee. Only in the 1860s. the castle returned to the Radziwills, after which several parks were laid out around the castle (the total area of ​​the park complex is 90 hectares). In 1921, Nesvizh became part of Poland, in 1939 - part of Belarus, in 1941-1944. is under fascist occupation. During the USSR, the palace housed a KGB sanatorium, in 2002 a fire broke out in the castle, which destroyed most of it. Restoration work is currently underway here, which is expected to be completed by 2010.

The castle, farny church and urban development are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

farny church

"In the second half of the sixteenth century. The Radziwills, Khodkevichs, Volovichs, Sapiehas and other magnates began to move from Catholicism to Protestantism - with an eye to secularizing church lands, that is, taking them into their own hands. Nikolai Radziwill Cherny even founded a community of Calvinists in Vilna in 1553, and also tried to organize the publication of Calvinist literature in Brest, where in 1563, on his orders, the Bible was published in Polish. In Nesvizh, at his suggestion, the Protestant printer Symon Budny (directly Semyon Budyonny), who was educated at the University of Krakow, published the "Catechism" and "On the justification of a sinful person before God." However, the clergy did not give up just like that, priests and members monastic orders launched a large-scale ideological struggle for the minds of the magnates, which was crowned with success. When Nikolai Cherny died, his Catholic son Nikolai Sirotka began to buy up Calvinist books published by his father in Nesvizh and Brest and burn them.”(c) Gleb, In the footsteps of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

As a symbol of the return of the Radziwills to the bosom catholic church, Nicholas the Sirotka commissions Giovanni Bernadoni a Jesuit church. In 1593, a baroque church appeared in Nesvizh in the image and likeness of the main Jesuit temple - the Roman Il Gesu (1584). It is believed that this was the first baroque temple in the territory of the Commonwealth.

“Bow down at your temple in your fear” - says the Latin inscription above the entrance to the Nesvizh farny church. The temple is like a symbol of faith of the Radziwills: the side altars are about to fall, but no - they are supported by angels. And on the left side, at the very descent into the crypt, pay attention to the gray tombstone of the Orphan: on the graves of the knights of that era, it was customary to depict a knight in full combat attire, with weapons, while Nikolai the Orphan is depicted on the slab kneeling, in a pilgrim's attire, with a campaign and with a wide-brimmed hat behind his shoulders. Knightly weapons lie, carelessly discarded, behind. Under the bas-relief is a long Latin epitaph, which says that before the Lord no one is a knight, but only a pilgrim wanderer.

In another side altar there is a marble sculpture of a young woman sitting on the lid of a coffin. This is Maria, the Orphan's lover - according to legend, she was buried alive - in a state of lethargic sleep - guides love to tell this story, waving their arms excitedly. The main decoration of the church is its painting (it is believed that the author of the painting, the artist H. G. Heskey, used the compositional schemes of Rubens for work). They say you can persuade the organist to let you upstairs to the choirs or even show you how to use the organ, but this seems to be from the category of tales.

Crypt

But it is still possible to get into the inaccessible crypt under the church: when we examined the murals, there was still a service in the church, after which the entrance was closed. One of the girls in our group was so worried about not being able to see the crypt that I told her about the article that I read before coming here - how one of the parishioners, Pani Yanina Shidlovskaya, lets tourists into the tomb for a fee of 1,500 rubles per person. The girl took up the matter actively, and after a group tour of the castle, she literally dragged this pani to us, who, seeing that the group was large (there were 20 of us), and two more groups also expressed a desire, said that she would take 1000 rubles per person, they say, collect. True, she did not even touch the money, ordering them to be stuffed into a donation box.

So, the family tomb of the Radziwill princes is a dark basement, where simple wooden coffins (they are metal inside) stand in rows, with a total of 78 or 79. The first to be buried here was Nikolai the Orphan himself in 1616, from whom the recipe for embalming corpses, brought by him from a trip to the East, was passed down from generation to generation. Each of the sarcophagi is entwined with wire, fastened with Radziwill's seals - this was done not so as not to release the ghosts (as many say), but so that the same tourists (several coffins are not behind bars, but right under the window in the basement) do not climb inside, or adventurers do not open the coffins in search of the key to the treasure (there were such cases too). The last burial in the crypt took place in 1999 - Anthony Radziwill, who died in London, was brought here (this is his coffin under the window). According to our guide, this is the third largest family burial in Europe, after the tombs of the Valois and the Habsburgs (however, to our question, is it not in Saint-Denis whether the Valois, and which Habsburgs are meant - in the Escorial or the Viennese Capuchinerskirche, the lady found it difficult to answer).

If you can’t get inside, then you can look into the crypt through the windows near the church foundation - you can even see something. The final stage of our trip was the visit of a local photographer who offered discs with photographs of Nesvizh, incl. archival (the castle before the fire) and crypts - 5 thousand rubles each. And do not hope - they are copy-protected :)

An exposition dedicated to the funeral culture of the Radziwill family will open in the dungeon of the Nesvizh Castle. Director of the National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Nesvizh" Sergei Klimov told the correspondent of MLYN.BY about this.

According to the interlocutor, for two years Belarusian and Lithuanian specialists have been conducting research in the crypt under the church of the Body of the Lord (Farny) in Nesvizh, in which the Radziwill family is buried. During this time, they unearthed more than 90 items that belonged to the famous family.

Radziwill's crypt

The Nesvizh crypt is a mausoleum of representatives of one family, unique in Eastern Europe. The first known burial here took place on April 9, 1616, it was Nicholas Christopher Radziwill the Orphan (1549–1616), the founder of the castle and the church. The last one took place on June 8, 2000. Then, in a special niche, they immured an urn with the ashes of Anthony Nikolai Radziwill (1935–1999), who died in London, but bequeathed to bury himself in the homeland of his ancestors.

Today in the tomb there are 70 sarcophagi (one of them is ritual), two canopies (vessels with embalmed internal organs) and one urn with ashes immured in the wall of the tomb.

For the entire twentieth century, attempts were made to study the crypt and inventory three times. In 1905, at the initiative of the Radziwills, a group of doctors and clergy examined the sarcophagi located here, replacing the worn-out ones with new ones. After that, they were braided with steel wire and sealed with lead seals with the image of the Radziwill eagle and the date "1905". In 1953, a group of Soviet medical specialists worked in the tomb.

— Their goals and objectives are still largely unclear. According to one version, scientists investigated the technology of embalming the bodies of the dead, which could be used for the burial of Soviet leaders (Just in March 1953, Joseph Stalin died). The commission worked in a great hurry, as a result of which the tomb was significantly damaged: seals were torn off from many sarcophagi, the tablets with the names of the dead were mixed up, the order of arrangement of the sarcophagi was changed, - said Sergey Klimov, director of the National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Nesvizh".

In 1999, Belarusian and Lithuanian specialists carried out an inventory and identified 33 graves, the rest are attributed as "burials of the unknown."

21st century research

In 2016, several visits of Lithuanian specialists to Nesvizh took place. They found that the current location of the sarcophagi does not match the inscriptions on the memorial tablets. The burials of men and women are mixed up. In particular, in sarcophagus No. 2, which has so far been attributed as the burial place of Elzhbeta Evfemia Radziwill (wife of Radziwill the Orphan), there were unidentified male remains. Restoration work was also carried out. In particular, the seal of Pope Benedict XIV (1750) on the commemorative plate at the entrance to the crypt and the coat of arms cartouche from the sarcophagus of Constance Radziwill-Chudovskaya (1796–1824) have been restored.

In sarcophagus No. 1, unique monuments of material culture of the 17th century were found. - a round cap and a doublet (men's outerwear). The main goal of the excavations carried out in June 2017 was the identification of individual burials, the analysis of their condition (sex, age, pathology, the safety of the remains), sampling for DNA analysis and studying the possibility of preserving and restoring objects found in sarcophagi.

- After a thorough anthropological study, the remains, cleaned of debris accumulated over many years, were appropriately placed in coffins in anatomical order. After that, the sarcophagi were closed, covered with wire and put in their places. Thus, in addition to the research work, the specialists also improved and streamlined the burial places, - Sergey Klimov notes.

Exhibits of the future exhibition

In all the opened coffins, very valuable things from the point of view of studying history were found: clothes, awards, weapons, objects of religious worship. All of them have been studied by restorers. The most significant ones were decided to be removed from the sarcophagi and left for storage in the funds of the Nesvizh Museum-Reserve for further restoration and display.

- This practice is accepted in foreign countries (in the same Lithuania), where objects found in burial places, family mausoleums are transferred to museum funds. This allows you to save artifacts and make them available for study by specialists. For Belarus, where a lot of historical and cultural values ​​were destroyed, this issue is of particular relevance, the expert believes.

Among the most valuable items, scientists include the signs of the orders of St. Hubert (burial of "Skarulsky") and the White Eagle (sarcophagus of Mikhail Kazimir Radziwill Rybonka), embroidered with metallic thread on formal clothes. Big interest also represents the saber "karabela" (XVII-XVIII centuries). A well-preserved bone hilt in the shape of an eagle's head with a knob bent down and a straight crosspiece. The blade itself, unfortunately, broke up into several fragments, comparing which, we can conclude the total length and width of the weapon. Fragments of a wooden scabbard covered with black leather were also found. The saber belonged to the great hetman Mikhail Kazimir Rybonka.

In a number of graves, scapulars (scopularia) were found - sacramentaries for holy relics in the form of two fragments of fabric connected by a ribbon in such a way that one was on the chest and the second on the back. Icons, medallions or holy relics were sewn into the fabric.

The most significant find is considered to be a fragment of the Slutsk belt from the Pane Kokhanku burial. This is the central part of a silk belt, on which a pattern in the form of transverse stripes with a floral ornament and “golden” fields is woven with a silver thread, the edges are decorated with images of flowers. The fragment itself is small (29x45 cm), but only a dozen belts of this type and their fragments have been preserved in Belarus. The belt is directly connected with one of the most colorful characters of Nesvizh history - Karol Stanislav Radziwill, nicknamed Pane Kokhanku, about whose adventures there are many legends and documentary evidence.

Study of burials in 2016–2017 was carried out within the framework of the joint Belarusian-Lithuanian project "Research and the concept of adaptation to visiting the tomb of the princely Radziwill family in the crypt of the Nesvizh church." All discovered items were transferred to the funds of the Nesvizh Museum-Reserve for further restoration. At the moment, the saber and a fragment of the Slutsk belt have been restored. Next up are the shoes.

Over time, artifacts from the crypt will be exhibited in a separate exhibition. Sergey Klimovich could not name the exact opening date, but he assured that the first visitors would be received in 2019. The exhibition is created with funds allocated from the budget of the Republic of Belarus and grants from the European Union.

Evgeny Oleinik

Photo: Svetlana Kureichik, Pavel Shnip, niasvizh.by

7 4

In September 2014, as part of our trip to Belarus, we visited the Nesvizh Castle, and of course, the Farny Church of the Body of God, located next to and associated with the famous family of the Radziwills, the owners of the castle. Before the trip, we read the reports of other travelers, but could not even imagine what beauty is hidden behind the modest church walls, and in the crypt of the Radziwill family, frost literally runs through the skin.

Since we spent two nights in a hotel on the territory of the Nesvizh Castle, we had plenty of time to calmly and without haste inspect the entire complex. Farny church we left for a snack. We planned in advance that we would try to arrange an individual excursion in the tourist center, which is located under the walls of the church.

The sleepy girl at the counter was very surprised that we expressed a desire to immediately go for a tour with a guide. She sang something like that this is a very complicated matter, and that it was necessary to book an excursion in advance (at the same time, for two days we walked around the Nesvizh complex almost alone, there were no crowds of tourists to be seen). In general, I worked out a little and in 5 minutes agreed with both the church and the guide to conduct an excursion. The cost is 160,000 Belarusian rubles (something around 500 rubles, which, you see, is very cheap for three people).
We waited only 30 minutes, after which a rather nice young girl came up and led us to the cathedral.

Next to the farny church is the former entrance tower to the Radziwill Castle. Today it plays the role of a bell tower.

Near the entrance, she told us very briefly about the history of the cathedral and told us what to look for on the facade.
First of all, we, like stupid monkeys, asked her what the word "farny" means. It turned out that everything is simple, this word means “parochial”. IN Eastern Europe Farny churches are quite common, for example, in Estonia and Poland.

So, the Farny Church was built by order of Mykola Khristopher the Sirotok from the Radziwill family, the same one who built a stone castle in Nesvizh. The question immediately arises, why was such a chic, huge cathedral needed in such a wilderness as Nesvizh? Everything is very simple, Mykolaj Khristovor Sirotka converted to Catholicism from Protestantism. When the monks of the Jesuit order arrived in Nesvizh, they did not like the city terribly, and they did not give permission for this. Radziwill Sirotka took this as a personal insult and invited the best Italian architect Giovanni Bernardoni, who participated in the construction of the most important Jesuit temple of El Gese. The architect spent no less than 10 years in Nesvizh, building both the palace and the church.
The construction of the church was completed in 1593, and the consecration took place in 1601.
The Nesvizh church was built in the Baroque style. On the facade of the temple you can see the inscription in Latin, which translates as "I will bow to your holy temple in my fear."

In the niches on the facade there are 4 sculptures of St. Nicholas (patron of the poor), St. Christopher (patron of travelers). On the upper tier - Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier.

While we were listening to the story on the street, a couple of Russians tried to join us several times, and the first time they even asked how they could book a tour. In the end, they also joined us, interrupting our tour three times. Therefore, it was easier to take them with you than to constantly fight back.
Having examined the cathedral from the outside, we went inside.

On the threshold of the temple, the guide told us that if we want to visit the family tomb of the Radziwills, then we need to pay 10,000 Belarusian rubles from each - a fee for the restoration of the temple. Well, we are not greedy, it is necessary so it is necessary.
Before entering the cathedral, the guide strictly told us that it was impossible to take pictures (under fear of being “beaten up” by the temple caretakers, we took several photos on the phone without a flash, well, we’re not for ourselves, everything is for readers.

So, entering the cathedral, we froze in amazement. That's something, but we did not expect to see such beauty. Natasha and I immediately remembered the baroque cathedrals that we saw last year in Austrian Styria, the luxury is quite comparable.

The walls and ceiling of the cathedral were painted in grisaille during the time of Radziwill, nicknamed Rybonka, by the court painters of the Radziwills, the father and son of Hessky.

In the very center of the cathedral, where the iconostasis is usually located, there is the Last Supper icon, which makes a very strong impression. The icon is very strange, it differs from the usual images of this scene. First, the Lord and his disciples are seated at a round table. In the foreground is Judas, who in one hand holds a bag with 30 pieces of silver. None of the apostles casts a shadow except Judas. The authorship of the icon was established as follows: during the restoration, a medieval author's signature with the name Hessky was found in the folds of Judas's dress.

In the Cathedral, we once again mentally praised ourselves for not holding back the money and taking an individual tour, because the guide pointed out many interesting details.
First of all, we went to the ancient altar, which was preserved in the 16th century. An interesting detail here are the figures of angels supporting the columns. According to the interpretation of historians, this means a symbolic return to the correct faith of the Radziwill family.

The interior of the cathedral has frescoes, icons, and beautiful bas-reliefs. Each bas-relief has its own story. The story of the bas-relief dedicated to Constance Radziwill (a sculptural group - a woman sitting on a marble coffin) is very romantic. The bas-relief was found quite by accident, he was hiding behind the icon. On the sculpture, there is a touchingly tender inscription “Except for life, I owe everything only to you.”
In addition, there are bas-reliefs of Radziwill the Orphan and his sons.

A special place in the guide's story was occupied by Grigory Vikentyevich Kolossovsky, who was the priest of the cathedral during the Great Patriotic War. When the Germans forced everyone to hand over non-ferrous metals under pain of death, Grigory Vikentievich got a certificate that the church organ had already been handed over, and he himself, with his assistants, took it apart and buried it in his garden, thus saving a valuable thing. At the end of the war, a shell hit the dome and a fire started, but even here G. Kolossovsky did not lose his head, called for help, and the fire was extinguished by common efforts. The Nesvizh Cathedral of the Body of God has never been closed since the day it was founded.

In general, after listening to all the real and fictional stories, we went down to a terrible place, to the family crypt of the Radziwills. By the way, without a guide, entry there is prohibited, but even without a tour, I advise you to just give some money to the caretaker, for some reason it seems to me that she will miss it.

Family burial of the Radziwills

There were 72 coffins in a small underground room. The first burial dates back to 1616, the last 1999. To be honest, the place is creepy. Movies about vampires popped into my head for some reason. But we had a guide with us and she poured fuel on the fire with all her might, with various horror stories and legends. She shared with us the secrets of embalming with pleasure, telling us in detail how mummies were made in those days. Radziwill, an orphan, brought with him from Egypt the secret of embalming bodies, which was subsequently very interested in Soviet scientists, who three times met the tomb.
The first thing we noticed is that the coffins are physically very large. In fact, it turned out that these are matryoshka coffins, that is, inside a large coffin there is another one, wooden or metal. At later burials, glass was installed in the coffins so that one could see the face, or rather what was left of it. According to the guide - it is better not to see this spectacle.
One of the legends was the story of the humpbacked coffin. Allegedly in the Middle Ages, one of the daughters of Prince Radziwill fell in love with a simple guy and became pregnant from him. To avoid shame, the girl was imprisoned in a tower and declared crazy. There she gave birth to a daughter. While the mother was in a fever, the girl was kidnapped. The faithful maid told the poor girl. Tormented by grief, the princess deceived the guards and ran to the place that the maid indicated to her. In the morning she was found hunched over with grief and dead. Due to the fact that the corpse could not be straightened, they had to be buried in a humpbacked coffin.

In general, the story in reality, the story was more prosaic. There was a flower vase in the coffin, apparently the favorite thing of one of the women of the Radziwill family.
In a small crypt to the left of the entrance, you can see several adult coffins and 12 small children's coffins. A terrible story is also connected with this burial. In small coffins are the children and grandchildren of the unfortunate Ekaterina Radziwill, the wife of Mikhail Sirotka. According to the legend, which was spread by human rumor, the soul of the mother flew to the blind man every day and turned into an owl here. The owl screamed in a heart-rending voice at night, so much so that everyone who heard these sounds made their hair stand on end. Of the 33 children she had, only 4 survived, can you imagine what the hard fate of this woman was?

It was especially impressive when we, being in the crypt, heard strange knocks. It seemed that someone was knocking on the lid of the coffin ... from the inside. Hearing this, everyone laughed nervously and slowly began to move towards the exit.

Interestingly, the Radziwills managed to coordinate with Rome the creation of a crypt, although according to Christian laws, the dead must be robbed underground. The family was rich and powerful, everything is clear, Rome gave permission, since the crypt is located below ground level, which means that we can assume that the bodies are located underground. Cunningly?
In general, having listened with interest to all the tales and legends, we went upstairs.

There was no one else in the church and I managed to take a few photos on my phone, although the caretaker scolded me for staying in the church while she was chilling on a street bench. In general, she behaved very ugly, as if this church was her property, obviously no one taught a woman to communicate culturally.

While I was photographing documents at the door of the temple, she literally rushed at me with her fists, shouting “I know you tourists, you won’t fool me!”. My aunt did not pay attention to the words that I was photographing on the street. But I didn't care, because I had a phone with trophy photos in my pocket.

In general, this is how we got the tour. If you are in Nesvizh, be sure to visit the Church with a guided tour. Despite the fact that the entrance to the church is free, with a guide you will enjoy several times more.

Search for cheap flights to Minsk

Reviews, prices, booking hotels in Belarus

Minsk Hotels