In the XVII century until 1940 the town was called Biaroza-Kartuzskaja or Kartuz-Biaroza. This name appeared because of the presence in the town of the only monastery of Carthusians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

In the XVII century until 1940 the town was called Biaroza-Kartuzskaja or Kartuz-Biaroza. This name appeared because of the presence in the town of the only monastery of Carthusians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Monastery of Carthusians in Biaroza was being built in the years 1648–1689 with the money of sub-chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Kazimir Lieŭ Sapieha. In 1661, construction of the stone church in the style of the Baroque, the three-nave basilica with three apses and a bell tower adjoined to the middle apse, was completed under the direction of an unknown architect from Warsaw. The complex consists of the same type groups of residential buildings adapted for solitary life of the monks, and commercial buildings. There were a library, a workshop, gardens and vegetable gardens. The monastery complex was surrounded by a stone wall with five towers and gates. A hospital and doctor's house were outside the walls of the monastery.

Carthusians ‑ Catholic Monastic Order was founded in 1084 in a mountainous area near Grenoble. Strict rules (vows of solitude and silence, required classes on spiritual perfection, prayer, penance, physical labor, as well as significant limitations in food) made the Order relatively small and, to some extent, elitist.

In 1830 the church was covered with sheet copper, and the floor is laid with Swedish marble. Typically, in a monastery of were living 14–16 monks. Part of the monks took part in the uprising of 1830–1831, which gave rise to the Russian authorities to close the monastery. The monastic Church became parish, but it was also closed in 1866. In 1868 the church building was destroyed. A small chapel was set in 1905–1907 in its place.

While the Western Belarus was a part of Poland there was a camp for political prisoners in Biaroza, for construction of which the brick from walls of the monastery was used. After the Second World War a fleet of a military unit was located for a long time on the territory of the former monastery. At present, only remnants of the entrance gate, the bell tower, the hospital and a part of the wall with one of the corner towers were kept from the monastery of carthusians.

Publication date: 25.01.2019.

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