Oltush. Chapel of St. Alexei.

If you drive along the highway beyond Malorita to the south for 15 kilometers to Lake Oltush, you will get to the ancient town of Oltush. There are two old religious buildings here: the chapel of St. Alexei and the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration. 

The place was first mentioned in historical sources in the 16th century. There was a wooden Uniate church in the 17th century. In 1792, the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth granted the privilege to build the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord. After the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Empress Catherine II handed over this place to General M. Lansky. According to an 1854 document, there were about a hundred wooden residential buildings in Oltush, a school, a tavern, a parish administration and a chapel with a church. After the Treaty of Riga in 1921, the town was part of Poland until 1939.

To this day, a stone Orthodox chapel has been preserved in the local cemetery, which was consecrated in honor of St. Alexei.

The building was built in 1872. Until now, the chapel in the cemetery was, worst of all, wooden. The chapel was built in the classical style. The temple has a rectangle in the plan, which is covered with a gable roof. An octagonal drum with an onion stands above the building. The entrance is decorated in the form of a low vestibule, which is attached to the main facade. There is a triangular pediment above the facade. The building is built of brick and plastered. The decorative finish is based on a combination of white and gray architectural details. The chapel has been renovated. It works, as a rule, on Orthodox holidays and memorial days.