The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Bernardine Church) is located in the centre of Slonim. It was built in the Baroque style in 1664–1670 for the nuns of the Bernardine Order from Viĺnia.

The Bernardine Church in Slonim was funded by Kanstancin Judzicki. Its official name was the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1696, the Viĺnia archbishop consecrated it. The first renovation took place 70 years after the construction. That time was a bloom of the Rococo architectural style in Belarus, which influenced the church architectural appearance.  

A Bernardine nunnery was added to the church, making a unified complex. The living nunnery building was built much later than the church, in the late 18th century.

After a big fire and a restoration of 1793, the Church of the Immaculate Conception reopened its doors for the faithful. In the Russian Empire, during the reign of Alexander II, the entering of new nuns was forbidden. The nunnery gradually emptied and fell into disrepair. 

In 1905, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II allowed Bernardine nuns’ activity. The nunnery complex was restored and inclipped with a solid brick fence with a Baroque gateway-bell tower. The complex includes the church and the living corpus attached to the south-west side, creating a square yard. In 1914, there were medical facilities in the building.

During World War II, the main dome burnt down. In Soviet times, the government ruined the gateway – a Viĺnia Baroque monument. In independent Belarus, the nunnery gateway was rebuilt in the modified form.

Publication date: 16.05.2022.

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