Vitebsk
Vitsyebsk (
Belarusian: 'і́цебск;
Russian: 'и́тебск;
Russian BGN/PCGN:
Vitebsk) is a city in
Belarus, near the border with
Russia and
Latvia. The capital of the
Vitebsk Oblast, in
2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city.
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View of Vitebsk in the early 19th century. |
Vitebsk developed from a river harbour where the Vitba River (
'іцьба, from which it derives its name) flows into the larger
Dvina, which is spanned in the city by the
Kirov Bridge. The first mention in historical records dates from
1021, but its official founding year is
974, for reasons unknown, the most likely being vanity.
In the
12th and
13th centuries Vitebsk was the seat of a minor principality, which thrived on the crossroads of the river routes between the
Baltic,
Black and
Mediterranean seas. In
1320 the city 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 Vitebsk downtown was rebuilt in the Neoclassical style. The town was a significant
shtetl in the
Pale of Settlement, with around half its population
Orthodox Jewish at the turn of the
20th century. The most famous of its Jewish natives was the painter
Marc Chagall. In January
1991, Vitebsk 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.
In the years
1919-
1991 Vitebsk was part of the
Soviet Union. During the
World War II, the city was under German occupation (1941-44). As a result, much of the old city was destroyed in the ensuing battles with the
Red Army.
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Early 12th-century Annunciation Church was rebuilt in 1992. |
Since
1992, Vitebsk has been hosting the annual
Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, an international art festival. Its main program 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.
The city long preserved one of the oldest buildings in the country, the Annunciation Church. This magnificent six-pillared building dates back to the period of
Kievan Rus. It was constructed in the 1120s, rebuilt in the 14th and 17th centuries, repaired in 1883 and destroyed by the Communist administration in 1961. Scarce remains of the church were conserved until 1992, when it was rebuilt "to an original design", although it's a moot point how the church looked like when it was first built.
Churches from the Polish-Lithuanian period were likewise destroyed, although the Resurrection Church (1772-77) is now being rebuilt. The orthodox cathedral, dedicated to the Intercession of the Theotokos, was erected in 1760. There are also the town hall (1775); the Russian governor's palace, where Napoleon celebrated his 43rd birthday in 1812; the Neo-Romanesque Roman Catholic cathedral (1884-85); and the
obelisk commemorating the centenary of the Russian victory over Napoleon.
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Vitebsk Town Hall (1775). |
*
Zhores Ivanovich Alferov,
physicist*
S. Ansky,
playwright, author of
The Dybbuk.
*
Marc Chagall, famous
painter*
Joseph Günzburg*
Leon Kobrin,
playwright*
Immanuel Velikovsky,
psychiatrist/
psychoanalyst and controversial author
*
Kazimierz Siemienowicz, an engineer, pioneer of
rocketry.
*
Simeon Strunsky (born, 1879) author in
New York City*
Official site of Vitebsk*
Vitebsk.com*
Vitebsk.net*
Official site of the Department of Internal Affairs Vitebsk executive committee*
Coat of Arms*
Photos on Radzima.org*
Shtetl: Vitebsk*
Historic images of Vitebsk*
Slavic Bazaar
