Aleg Trusau
A Bit of Ancient History…
Once, in the 13th-15th centuries, there were two Belarusian states. One of them, established in the 13th century, was called the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while the other was known as the Grand Duchy of Smolensk and was predominantly inhabited by Belarusians, descendants of the Krivichs. While much has been written about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in every history textbook on Belarus, the history of the Smolensk state, which existed independently for more than 300 years before becoming part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, remains almost unknown to us. After 1926, the territory of ethnographic Smolenshchyna, predominantly populated by Belarusians, was divided between the BSSR and the RSFSR. This division, with minor changes in 1964 in favor of Belarus, has persisted to this day.
Ancient Mstsislaw, the second most significant city in that Smolensk state, is now a district center of the Mogilev region. It arose on the banks of the Vikhra River, a tributary of the Sozh. Archaeologists have determined that people first settled in this area several thousand years ago, during the Bronze Age. On the right bank of the Vikhra, on a high hill later romantically named the Maiden Hill, a small tribal settlement emerged, where Baltic tribes lived for about 200 years (1st century BC – 1st century AD). They engaged in fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, and primitive agriculture.
Under pressure from new tribes coming from the west and south, the local people migrated to another, more dangerous location. New inhabitants – the Slavs – appeared here in the 10th-11th centuries and occupied a new elevation not far from the Maiden Hill, which is now called the Castle or Castle Hill. The residents built a high rampart here and fortified it with an oak palisade.
Initially, this was the territory of the Radimichs, which in the early 12th century became part of the Smolensk principality founded by the Krivichs. The Krivichs transformed the former Radimich settlement into a strong city, which the Smolensk prince Rostislav Mstislavich named in honor of his father Mstislav the Great – Mstsislaw. The chronicle dates the founding of this city to 1135.
Mstsislaw became the personal possession of the Smolensk princes and was their second residence, as from 1180 it was already the center of a principality that existed until the early 16th century, initially as part of the Smolensk state and from the mid-14th century as an autonomous entity within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Archaeology Tells the Story…
Once, in the 12th-17th centuries, a majestic wooden multi-towered castle stood on Castle Hill, where many residential and economic buildings were located, along with a temple and a princely palace, bustling with urban life. However, now there are only gardens and a few wooden buildings on the outskirts of Castle Hill.
The mysteries of the settlement were revealed by the famous archaeologist Leonid Alexeev, who has been studying this site since 1959. The thickness of the cultural layer here is about 3.3 meters. It well-preserved the remains of wooden structures from the castle of the 13th-16th centuries. These include remnants of residential houses, wooden paths between them, and within the fortress, foundations of a large octagonal wooden structure from the late 15th-16th centuries were found, which could be either a defensive tower-dungeon or an ancient temple adapted for defense.
Among the archaeological finds, unglazed ceramic dishes, pot and box tiles, and items made of wood, bone, leather, metal, and glass predominate. The most interesting are bone plates for a quiver for arrows from the 13th century, decorated with geometric patterns and the image of a mythological two-headed beast ready to swallow two people in high hats.
The trade connections of the Mstsislaw residents with Kyiv and even Arab countries of the Near East are evidenced by finds of women’s glass bracelets, fragments of glass dishes from the 12th-13th centuries, slate weights made from soft pink stone. On one piece of glassware, there is even an Arabic inscription.
An interesting pendant cross from the 13th century with the inscription “Mother of God, help” was found. Another pendant cross was discovered in a silk pouch. In the untouched cultural layer of the 13th century, archaeologists found a fragment of a birch bark letter, notably the second in Belarus. It discussed the purchase of wheat for the city’s residents in a year of poor harvest for 4.5 hryvnias. L. Alexeev believes that the letter was written in 1219, which was a very dry year.
To the south and southwest of Castle Hill was the fortified urban settlement, where merchants and craftsmen lived. Here, archaeologists found the remains of a furnace-ironworks, where iron was smelted from bog iron ore, as well as the remnants of a potter’s workshop from the 14th-15th centuries.
Mstsislaw in the Late Middle Ages…
From 1528, the city became the property of the grand prince and the center of a starostwo. From the second half of the 16th century, it was a voivodeship town. In 1634, it received Magdeburg rights and the coat of arms “Little Pahonia” in the form of a knight’s hand with a sword above the clouds. The Mstsislaw voivodeship had its flag of lemon-yellow color with a white “Pahonia” on a red field.
The city was surrounded by a high earthen rampart, on which stood wooden blind log walls and, in places, a double fence made of oak logs. Four tower-gates led into the city, which stood on trade routes towards Smolensk, Mogilev, Orsha, Vitebsk, and Krichev. The castle was surrounded by large natural moats ranging from 50 to 300 meters wide and more than 20 meters deep.
During this time, Mstsislaw merchants were not the least on the markets of Smolensk, Vilnius, Moscow, Bryansk, Kaluga, Mogilev, and other major cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Moscow state. Among Mstsislaw craftsmen, potters and glassmakers were the most renowned (they produced glassware). In addition to various dishes, potters made ceramic lamps, fishing weights, and even ceramic pipes for smoking tobacco. However, they paid the most attention to stove tiles of various types and designs. During excavations of the Mstsislaw settlement, archaeologists found more than 5,000 fragments of different tiles, among which beautiful multicolored glazed tiles stand out, with a color palette consisting of green, blue, yellow, and white.
It was the skill of producing polychrome (multicolored) tiles that brought the greatest fame to Mstsislaw craftsmen in the 17th century. All modern ceramists know the works of Mstsislaw’s Stepan Ivanov, nicknamed Palubes. Having arrived in Moscow in 1654 as a very young man, he decorated many Moscow churches and the royal palace with relief polychrome tiles.
Judging by the archaeological finds, Mstsislaw tile makers were not inferior to glassmakers, who produced all known categories of Belarusian glassware: cups, jugs, mugs, goblets, quarts, tankards, etc.
Especially beautiful were jugs of various types, decorated with molded braids and ribbons, with handles of various sizes. Some glassware had decorations in the form of medallions, sometimes with images of the coats of arms of local nobility. Some examples of jugs were painted with multicolored enamels. Thus, on one piece of pottery, we see the image of a horseman in a coat with an uplifted hand.
Speaking of medieval Mstsislaw, one cannot fail to mention the famous first printer – Peter Timofeevich Mstsislawets, who in the second half of the 16th century, together with Ivan Fedorov, founded printing first in the Moscow state and then, from 1569, lived and worked in Vilnius, where he published many useful and beautiful books, including “The Calendar,” “The Gospel for the Altar,” and “The Psalter.”
Stone Lace of Mstsislaw
In the 16th century, the center of the city gradually shifted from the castle to a wide plateau, where there was once an unfortified settlement. Here, a city square was created with a town hall and trading shops, and Orthodox and Catholic churches and monasteries were built.
After the bloody war with Moscow from 1654-1667, when the city repeatedly burned, was destroyed, and changed hands, the castle finally fell into decline, and the city acquired a completely new appearance. On the 1773 plan, there were 6 brick churches, 4 Catholic monasteries, and one wooden Uniate church in the center of Mstsislaw.
Unfortunately, only a few churches have survived to this day. Among them is the Carmelite Assumption Church, located not far from Castle Hill. Built in the 17th century, it was thoroughly rebuilt in 1746-1750 under the guidance of the famous architect Glawbic. The interior space of the temple is adorned with unique frescoes. Among the many biblical scenes in the main nave of the church, there are two secular paintings of a specifically historical nature – “The Capture of Mstsislaw by Moscow Troops” and “The Murder of Priests.” This unusual phenomenon in the temple painting of the 18th century testifies to the very bold idea of an unknown artist. In addition to battle scenes, in the altar part of the church, there are two symmetrically placed medallions with images of the founders – individuals who donated personal funds for the construction of the temple. Among them is the Mstsislaw military Jakub Karal Mazalinski.
In the center of the city rises the ensemble of the former Jesuit monastery of the 18th-19th centuries. The building of the high two-towered church, the two-story building of the college supported by powerful columns-counterforts, some economic buildings, and a high brick fence with small chapels at the corners, erected in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, have been preserved. The church of Alexander Nevsky, built in 1870 on the foundations of the former Bernardine monastery, the building of the Trinity Church from the first third of the 19th century, and the stone Slabodskaya church, built in the mid-19th century on the site of the former wooden Uniate church, date back to the 19th century.
Opposite the Jesuit monastery, in 1907-1908, a two-story building of a men’s gymnasium in the Art Nouveau style was erected. In the 1920s-1930s, a Belarusian pedagogical technical school operated here, where Arkadz Kulyashou, Yuli Taubin, Zmitrok Astapenka, and other Belarusian poets and writers studied.
The central part of the city is occupied by the ensemble of trading rows, erected in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The wooden and brick buildings from the late 19th – early 20th centuries give the city a special beauty. Even now, on the old streets, one can see the facades and porches of houses adorned with various wooden lace. Among the numerous wooden buildings, bright red or white plastered facades of brick buildings with various wooden trims and window frames, wrought iron grilles of balconies and porches stand out.
Therefore, when you visit ancient Mstsislaw, memories of the magnificent Belarusian history will remain in your memory for a long time.