Description of the attraction
The Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene is one of the oldest surviving churches in Bialystok. It is the cathedral of the parish of St. Nicholas, located in the center of the city in the park.
The Church of Mary Magdalene was founded by a representative of the noble family and hetman Jan Clemens Branicki in 1758. A baroque chapel in the form of a small rotunda with a domed roof was built on a hill that was still outside the city in the 18th century.
Initially, the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene was not surrounded by a cemetery, it appeared only in 1806. After 1807, when Bialystok became part of Tsarist Russia, Russian military and officials were buried in the cemetery. In 1864, the chapel became an Orthodox church, and in 1882, due to poor sanitary conditions, the cemetery was closed. In 1865, the Russian authorities handed over the church to the parish of St. Nicholas, then a major overhaul was carried out. During the First and Second World Wars, the cemetery was partially used due to the lack of free places in the city, and in the post-war years it was completely liquidated. There are only a few commemorative plaques left near the chapel of Mary Magdalene.
At the moment, the church of St. Mary Magdalene belongs to the Orthodox parish of St. Nicholas. In 1966 it was included in the register of architectural monuments.
