Minsk. Castle Church.

The Castle Church in Minsk was built in the 11th century, but was not completed. Previously, there was a wooden church in its place. And then they began to build a three-apsed, four-pillared 16 by 12 meter cross-domed temple here. The building without apses has the shape of a square 12 by 12 meters, with pillars in the center. The walls are made of hewn stones more than a meter high and the walls are one and a half meters thick. Fragments lined with dolomite tiles survived on the walls inside - this detail was no longer used in the monumental construction of ancient Belarus. Archaeologist Eduard Zagarulski believes that the builders of the temple were familiar with the Romanesque architecture of Poland. The castle church was investigated by several archaeologists. The first researcher was Vasyl Tarasenko, who started excavations in the first years after the war and used German prisoners of war as auxiliary workers for the excavations, because there was a shortage of workers.

It is not known exactly why the temple was not completed. But there is a version that for the construction of the church, a site near the collapsing shaft was unsuccessfully chosen. Even later, in the 12th and 13th centuries, a necropolis of noble citizens appeared inside the unfinished church. And during the excavations, 21 burials and a number of unique things were discovered, such as a gold bracelet weighing 75 grams. Today, the foundations are in the same place at a depth of 0.5 - 2.1 meters. In 1993, the church was partially converted into a museum, and a plan of the church was laid out with tiles along the contour, and a small monument was also erected.