Saints Peter and Paul Church, Catholic church in Iŭje, Belarus.
Saints Peter and Paul Church is a single-nave, twin-tower brick church in Iwye, built in the late 18th century in Baroque style on the site of a 15th-century Gothic church. Its main facade is divided by a cornice into two tiers: the lower with slender pilasters, the upper with two shaped towers topped by faceted cupolas and a central attic between them. A five-sided apse closes the nave, and stepped buttresses stand at the corners.
A Gothic church stood here from 1491–1495. In the late 16th century it became a Calvinist cathedral, then passed to Jan Kishka, who promoted Arianism; Arians ran a printing press and a school headed by Jan Namysłowski in 1585–1593. Catholics regained it in 1612, and in 1633 Mstislav voivode Mikołaj Kishka funded its rebuilding and gave it to the Bernardines. Burned in the 1654–1667 war, it was rebuilt in Baroque style and consecrated in 1787; the monastery closed in 1858.
The church keeps a Romantic organ built in 1899 by the German maker Friedrich Weissenborn (c. 1840–1902); only three of his organs survive in Belarus, and this one is noted for its soft Romantic registers. A statue of Christ stands beside the church, next to the surviving west wing and part of the east wing of the former Bernardine monastery.
The church stands in the centre of Iwye, next to the surviving west wing of the former Bernardine monastery and a statue of Christ. The organ, built by Friedrich Weissenborn in 1899, is one of only three of his instruments left in Belarus. Visitors should dress for an active parish and check Mass times locally before planning a visit.
The church keeps a Romantic organ built in 1899 by the German maker Friedrich Weissenborn (c. 1840–1902), known for soft Romantic registers. Only three of his organs survive in Belarus, and this is one of them.
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