Situated on the borderland of a few cultures and religions Bialystok still bears the traces of its past multicultural identity.
Town rights (statutes) Bialystok gained in 1749; its rapid growth as an improtant trade and cultural centre it owed to Jan Klemens Branicki – representative of Polish nobility, who became the owner of the town in the first half of the 18th century. In that period Bialystok and surrounding region was inhabited by Poles, Rutheninans, Jews and Tatars; Catholic, Greek Catholic, Orthodox, Judaism and Muslim belivers. All these ethnic and religious groups lived in relative peace and tolerance. Later on, in the first half of the 19th century newcomers from German states also appeared here.
Below there are presented a few pictures depicting old sacred bulidings related to a few religious and national groups inhabiting this town.
It is the oldest Orthodox chuch in Bialystok, founded by Jan Klemens Branicki in 1758, originally as a Greek Catholic church.
Saint Roch’s church – one of the most modern Catholic churches in the interwar period in Europe, designed by outstanding Polish architect – Oskar Sosnowski.
To be continued…
