Bogdanovo. The grave of the artist Ferdinand Ruszczyc.

Tourists go to Bohdanovo primarily to see the beautiful1 modern church. At first, the Catholic church was wooden, built in the early 19th century. We can judge the original appearance of the church thanks to the painting of the artist Ferdynand Ruszczyc, who glorified his small homeland Bohdanovo in his works.

F. Ruszczyc (1870 – 1936) lived an interesting and colorful life. Belarus, Poland and Lithuania consider him their artist. Ruszczyc was an artist, teacher, graphic artist and theater designer. His work is characterized by features of realism and modernism. The Ruszczyc family estate was Bohdanovo. After the Kastus Kalinowski Uprising, the Ruszczycs rented out the estate and moved to Libau, and then to Minsk, where Ferdynand graduated from a boys' gymnasium. Then he entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied under the famous artists Ivan Shishkin and Arkhip Kuindzhi. After completing his studies, he traveled around Western Europe, living first in Poland and then in Vilnius, where he worked at the Stefan Batory University. In the last years of his life, when F. Ruszczyc was seriously ill, he moved to live in his family estate in Bohdanovo.

The artist died on October 30, 1936. He was buried in the local cemetery. Several of his paintings are kept in Minsk in the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, including the painting "At the Church". In recent years, several books and photo albums dedicated to the outstanding artist have been published in Belarus. The estate where Ruszczyc was born burned down during the last war. Only the remains of the building and a few trees of the old park remain. To visit the artist's grave, you need to drive through the entire village of Bogdanovo, and at the end on the right you will see the local modern cemetery. A dirt road leads there. Walk all the way to the cemetery. And on the right side you will see a mountain with stairs leading to it. If you climb the stairs, you will come to the grave of F. Ruszczyc.