Hlybokaye

Hlybokaye has two large baroque churches standing close together, both begun in the seventeenth century: the Carmelite church, now the Orthodox cathedral of the Nativity, with a heavy Vilnius baroque front, and the Catholic Trinity church opposite, rebuilt in the eighteenth century with twin towers, so the town centre is dominated by the pair. The town has made cherries its emblem, with orchards around it, a cherry monument, and a cherry festival held in July with markets, cooking and music. Jean Gilbert, a French confectioner said locally to be connected to the town, and the writer Jazep Drazdovich are among the figures the local museum covers.

History

Hlybokaye is first mentioned in 1414, and in 1514 the documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania list a manor and estate here owned by the Zianowicz family; it became a private town, and in the 17th century Józef Korsak founded a Catholic parish church and a church of the Discalced Carmelites, who ran a school and dormitory for poor students, a library, a pharmacy and a hospital. Jews settled from the 17th century and made up about 70 per cent of its 5,600 people by the end of the 19th; after the partitions of Poland the town passed to Russia, Napoleon stayed at the Carmelite monastery for several days in 1812, and the tsarist authorities later closed the monastery and gave it to the Orthodox church (Wikipedia, Hlybokaye).

What you'll find

• The two baroque churches - the Carmelite and Trinity buildings facing each other.
• The cherry festival - the July celebration and its markets.
• The cherry monument - the town's emblem in the centre.
• The local museum - the collection on the town and its figures.

When to go

July for the cherry festival, which is the town's main event; June to September otherwise for the town and the orchards. Church interiors follow service hours. Winter is long and cold.

Things to know

Outside the festival the town is quiet and small. Church interiors depend on service times. The museum is provincial with Belarusian and Russian labelling. Hlybokaye is a long drive from Minsk.

Nearby

Mosar lies west; Polotsk is east.

Key facts