Novogrudok. The Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

The original wooden church was founded in 1395 by the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vitovt on the site of a pagan temple. Lithuania itself was baptized in 1397.

The building was rebuilt in the XVIII century in the Sarmatian Baroque style, which has been preserved in this form to the present day. This architectural style became widespread in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the late XVII - early XVIII centuries, it was an ascetic variation of Baroque architecture, characterized by "expressive massive plastic forms" and a general orientation towards the medieval tradition. Baroque forms are geometrized and simplified to the limit, Renaissance, Gothic and even Romanesque elements are introduced into the design of facades. The silhouettes of the temples are massive, sometimes they resemble miniature fortresses, their decor is deliberately strict. The laconic design of the facades often contrasts with the lush stucco interior. In the monuments of the Sarmatian Baroque, it is customary to see a reflection of the ideology of Sarmatism, which idealized the patriarchal way of life of the medieval ancestors of the Polish-Lithuanian gentry. In the 1720s, the primitivization of Baroque forms went out of fashion, the heavy Sarmatian was replaced by the light and magnificent Vilna Baroque.

The inscription on the plaque says that in 1422, the Polish king and former Lithuanian Prince Jagiello married the young Sophia Golshanskaya, their heir gave rise to a new Jagiellonian dynasty, whose representatives ruled in the XV-XVI centuries in Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

On February 12, 1799, the future great Belarusian-Lithuanian-Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz was baptized in this temple – as evidenced by a marble plaque installed to the left of the entrance.

Near the church there is a memorial stone in honor of 11 sisters of Catholic Nazarene nuns (Novogrudok martyrs) who were shot during the occupation of Novogrudok on August 1, 1943. In 2000, the Roman Catholic Church beatified them. In the side chapel of the church there is a sarcophagus with the relics of the holy sisters of Nazareth.

In 1942, the German occupation authorities launched repressions against the Jewish and Polish population of Novogrudok. Most of the Jewish population of the city was shot. The Polish population was also persecuted: 60 people were shot, including two priests. A similar wave of repression was repeated in 1943. On July 18, 1943, 120 residents of Novogrudok and priest Zenkevich were arrested. The abbess of the monastery, Sister Maria Stella, appealed to the German authorities to release the arrested, replacing them with herself. On July 31, 1943, the German authorities arrested 11 nuns, who were shot the next day on August 1, 1943, in a forest near Novogrudok.