First Minsk church, Religious building in central Minsk, Belarus
First Minsk Church survives only as the stone foundation of an unfinished 11th-century building, excavated in 1949 by Vasily Tarasenko on the Zamchishche, near the 8 Marta Square. The planned structure measured 16 by 12 metres, with three apses and four pillars; its rubble-stone walls, bound with lime mortar, rose only about one metre and were up to 1.5 metres thick. The remains lie 0.5–2.1 metres below ground beside the east wall of the "Trudovye Rezervy" sports house.
The stone foundation was uncovered in 1949 during excavations in the eastern part of the Minsk Zamchishche, led by Vasily Tarasenko, who studied it until 1951. Construction began between 1069 and 1073, possibly under Prince Yaropolk Izyaslavich, and was never finished; the walls stood only about one metre high. In the 12th and 13th centuries the site served as a necropolis, and in the early 13th century a wooden road was laid over the foundation.
The unfinished walls, raised only to about one metre, later served as a necropolis: excavations in the 1950s found 21 burials in wooden coffins. One well-preserved grave of a woman allowed researchers to reconstruct her appearance, including a braid coiled around her head, a hairstyle typical of Ukrainian and southern Belarusian women.
The excavated foundation lies 1.5 m below ground beside the east wall of the House of Physical Culture of the "Trudovye Rezervy" society, near 8 Marta Square. A modern masonry imitation of 12th-century foundations stands a few metres to the north-west; the 1967 replica is about 30 m from the actual remains.
The church was never finished: its walls rose only to about one metre, up to 1.5 m thick, and were then abandoned. In the 13th century a wooden street was laid over the foundation, and the unfinished interior had already become a cemetery with 21 burials in wooden coffins.
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