Description of the attraction
The Church of St. John the Baptist in Kamai is a functioning Catholic church, a monument of defensive architecture of the 17th century. The church was built in 1603-1604 by order and at the expense of the hero of the Khotyn battle Yan Rudomin-Dusyatsky.
During the Russian-Polish war of 1654-57, when a hospital was located at the temple, the temple was badly damaged by fire. After a major reconstruction, the temple was re-consecrated in 1673. In the original construction, the four-nave church after the restoration became a single-nave one.
The temple was seriously damaged again during the Great Northern War of 1700-1721. Its walls were destroyed by Swedish cannonballs. In memory of this, during the subsequent renovation, it was decided to embed cannonballs into the walls of the church. During the next renovation of the temple in 1726-36, its vaults were painted with floral ornaments from flowering and fruiting vines, as a symbol of prosperity and fertility of the native land.
The southern rectangular chapel with a crypt, covered with a cylindrical vault, was added in 1778. In the 18th century, an organ was installed in the church, which has survived to this day. A major restoration of the temple was carried out in 1861.
An interesting fact - in its entire history, the temple has never been closed. For centuries Catholic hymns sounded in it. When the church was entered into the State List of Historical and Cultural Values of the Republic of Belarus, 118 items of historical values were counted in it.
In the courtyard of the Church of St. John the Baptist there is a large stone cross with a crucifixion niche. The cross was installed in the 15th-16th centuries. The height of the cross is 2, 55 meters.
