Birch. Ruins of a Carthusian monastery.

Founded 1648-1689 the representative of the famous magnate family Casimir Lev Sapieha, the monastery of the Carthusians, the only monastery of this order in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, had a huge influence on the socio-economic development of Bereza, which at that time had the status of a town. Moreover, the monastery was a religious, scientific, educational and charitable center. Due to the beauty of its design and architecture, the Berezovsky Monastery of the Carthusians was included in the French Encyclopedia of Arts and had practically no analogues in Europe.

The charter of the Carthusian order is considered almost the most stringent among all other Catholic ones: the monastic “fathers” were forbidden to even communicate with each other, and they gathered for a common meal only once a year. The Carthusians took a vow of silence, lived in closed cells, and spent their days in prayer and meditation. The “brother” monks, for whom the rules were not so strict, took care of the household. The Berezovsky Monastery had its own tile production, a brewery, several mills, a greenhouse, a library and vineyards. To keep all this in order, almost 2,000 serfs worked in the monastery. The hermit monks grew richer every day and turned into large landowners.

The monastery complex included the monastery itself, the Church of the Holy Cross and the chapel of St. Bruno. It was built in the Baroque style as a monastery-fortress - with elements of defensive architecture: stone walls with towers, a moat around the monastery. Construction began in 1648 and completed in 1689.

The territory of the monastery is divided into closed, separate spaces. In the center there is a square courtyard surrounded by the buildings of the cells of hermit monks. The monastery had several stone buildings, similar cells of living quarters with small courtyards, a refectory, a library, a hospital, a pharmacy, and outbuildings.

The church, consecrated in 1666, is the main building of the monastery. This is a three-nave basilica with three faceted apses and a faceted vestibule at the entrance, connected to the monastery by corridors forming a closed square courtyard. An 8-sided multi-tiered bell tower with a baroque dome and cannons on the tiers was attached to the façade of the church. The interior space of the church was divided into two services: for the laity and for the hermits.

The following parts have been partially preserved to this day: part of the monastery walls, the entrance gate, the two-story Sapieha palace, fragments of watchtowers, part of the belfry of the former church. In the middle of the old cemetery, adjacent to the ruins of the monastery, there is a stele, which, according to unconfirmed reports, was installed on the grave of Kazimierz Sapieha, who was reburied during the destruction of the monastery church.

The ancient appearance of the monastery has survived to this day in the surviving drawings, engravings and watercolors of Napoleon Orda.