St. Joseph's Church and Bernardine Monastery

The Bernardine Monastery was founded in 1624 by two brothers, Andrei and Jan Konsovsky. The first monastery building was a wooden church, erected in the 1630s and stood until 1644, when it burned down in a fire along with the rest of the buildings. In 1652, the Church of St. Joseph, the main monastery temple, was built. In the following years, the monastery suffered from fires more than once, but was restored every time.

By the end of the XVIII - early XIX centuries, the Bernardine monastery occupied a whole quarter, and the complex of its buildings included a temple with a residential building attached to it, as well as numerous buildings: a refectory, a school, a hospital, a stable and even a brewery. Around the monastery stretches a high stone fence with several gates.

In 1864, as punishment for Kastus Kalinovsky’s participation in the uprising, the church building was confiscated and the monastery was abolished. Restoration began after more than a hundred years - in 1983 the Church of St. Joseph was restored, and in 1992 the archive of scientific and technical documentation and the national archive of literature and art moved to the building. The remaining buildings were placed at the disposal of the prosecutor’s office and the military commander’s office.

From an architectural point of view, the Church of St. Joseph is a three-nave crazy basilica with a somewhat convex facade decorated with decorative elements. At the edges of the facade there are two niches in which sculptures were previously placed. Above the main entrance is a large three-petal window. Undoubtedly, this building is of interest to lovers of historical travel.