Svisloch. Gymnasium building

The town of Svisloch in the early 19th century belonged to the magnate Count Vincent Tyshkevich. The count was a very wealthy man, married to Maria Teresa Poniatowska, who was the niece of the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Tyshkevich was a well-known philanthropist and invested a lot of money in the development of the town of Svisloch. In 1804, for the money of V. Tyshkevich, the Grodno Provincial Gymnasium was founded, according to a plan that was developed by the leadership of the Vilna University. A stone building in the classical style was built especially for the gymnasium. Count Tyshkevich financed not only the funds for the building itself, but also bequeathed 20,000 rubles in silver and rented rooms for poor students at his own expense.

 The gymnasium was opened in 1805. The gymnasium changed its name several times during its existence and was closed in 1851.

The period of study at the gymnasium was designed for 7 years and up to 300 students studied, despite the fact that the population in Svisloch at that time was 600 people. According to the daily routine at the gymnasium, students got up at 6 a.m. and went to bed at 22.00. Due to the high level of teaching and a good learning base, talented students from all over the region came here to study. And this contributed to the spread of free thought and several secret student circles were formed, such as "scientific" and "moral".

After the closure of the gymnasium, a teacher's seminary began working here. Many prominent Belarusian figures studied at the gymnasium and seminary.

They studied here at different times: Makar Kravtsov (1891 – 1939) – Belarusian poet and publicist; Osip Kovalevsky (1800 – 1878) – historian, philologist and orientalist; Vincent – Konstantin Kalinovsky (1838 – 1864) – publicist, poet, politician; Jozef Kraszewski (1812 – 1887) – folklorist, writer and historian; Napoleon Orda (1807 – 1883) – pianist, artist and composer; Lucian Kraszewski (1820 – 1892) – painter and photographer;

Romuald Traugut (1826-1864) was a political and military figure and many others.

The building of the former gymnasium has the status of an architectural monument.