The Sapiehas’ palace was built in the middle of the 17th century and became an architectural landmark of Hrodna.

Giovanni Battista Gislenny is considered a possible author of the Sapiehas’ palace project. The palace was a three-storey stone plastered building. The main long facade of the grandiose structure jutted out onto the Market. The most durable decorative element of the building is the window decoration: two semi-columns supporting a wide floor panel. That is typical for Renaissance architecture.

In 1717–1718, the stone building was rebuilt by the German architect Joachim Daniel Jauch into a royal residence. The rebuilt two-story building housed a vestibule with two support pillars, above them there was a large hall, to which a monumental staircase led from two wings. The palace was connected by two wooden two-storey passages with another Sapiehas’ palace on Bryhickaja Vulica, where the Sejm sessions were held. In 1765 the palace was sold to the Great Lithuanian Treasurer Michail Bžastoŭski.

In 1834 or 1836, the palace was confiscated by the Russian authorities and transferred simultaneously to eleven owners. In 1885, the building was badly damaged in a fire. The part of the palace, which jutted out to Miaščanskaja Vulica, collapsed.

Soon the former palace became the property of the merchant Miendeĺ Lapin, who first arranged the Centraĺny Hotel here, and then handed over the building to the private female gymnasium of Barkoŭskaja. Since 1924, the building housed a kitchenware, a bookbinding, a pastry and a jewelry workshop and a warehouse for electrical products. In 1937, the Merchant Bank was located in the former palace.

During the Second World War, the southern part of the palace was damaged, and after the war it was dismantled. In the post-war period, the building was occupied by various professional educational institutions. Today the former palace is occupied by the Department of Anatomy of the Hrodna Medical University.

Publication date: 20.08.2020.

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