Halshany or Holszany Castle ( be, Гальшанскі замак, lt, Alšėnų pilis, pl, Zamek holszański) is the ruined residence of the

Sapieha The House of Sapieha (; be, Сапега, ''Sapieha''; lt, Sapiega) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Lithuanian and Ruthenian origin,Энцыклапедыя ВКЛ. Т.2, арт. "Сапегі" descending from the med ...

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

family in

Halshany Halshany ( be, Гальшáны, lt, Alšėnai or Galšia, russian: Гольшáны, pl, Holszany, yi, אלשאן ''Olshan'') is a village and former town in the Grodno Region of Belarus. It is known as the former seat of the Olshanski prin ...

Hrodna Voblast Grodno Region ( pl, Grodzieńszczyzna) or Grodno Oblast or Hrodna Voblasts ( be, Гродзенская вобласць, ''Hrodzienskaja vobłasć'', , ''Haradzienščyna''; russian: Гродненская область, ''Grodnenskaya oblast' ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. It used to be the seat of one of the largest land estates in the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

. The current structure was built about 1610 by Paweł Stefan Sapieha to replace an older castle of the Holszanski princely family, of whom Sapiehas were descendants and heirs. Also known as the Black Castle (although it is built of red

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

), the residence formerly rivaled Mir Castle as the most elegant private ''

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

'' of the

. The name ''Black Castle'' in fact originally applies to a fictional building from a book by

Uladzimir Karatkievich Uladzimir Karatkievich ( be, Уладзімір Сямёнавіч Караткевіч; russian: link=no, Владимир Семёнович Короткевич) (26 November 1930 – 25 July 1984) was a Belarusian romantic writer. Biog ...

, which was loosely based on Halshany Castle. The castle and the surrounding estates were devastated, robbed and looted, twice: by the invading

Swedes Swedes ( sv, svenskar) are a North Germanic ethnic group native to the Nordic region, primarily their nation state of Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countr ...

troops during the

Deluge (history) The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

and during the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

in 1704. Due to financial stress experienced by the Sapiehas in the wake of the Domestic War and ongoing Great Northern War, the castle had never been fully restored. Later during the 18th century the castle with its estate diminished by creditors passed to the Żaba family, to be sold to the Korsak family with the estate further diminished by the creditors. The last Polish landlords. the Korsaks, sold, in the last quarter of the 19th century, the castle to a Russian landlord, Gorbanyov, who had the castles' towers pulled down in 1880, but in 1880s, according to the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, there were still 2 floors occupied with some of the wall paintings visible. In 2018 the government-funded restoration of the northern tower started. An annual tournament is held near its walls each summer.

References

External links

Halshany Castle page at radzima.org

on th
Official Website of Belarus

Charity account opened for Halshany Castle
{{Castles in Belarus Ruined castles in Belarus Buildings and structures in Grodno Region Sapieha

References

Further reading

External links