Monastery of Jesuits in Juravičy, Catholic monastery in Juravičy, Belarus

The Monastery of Jesuits in Juravičy consists of a residential building and a three-nave basilica church with an elongated, semicircular apse and two two-storey sacristies. The monastery was built on a horseshoe plan with two square corner towers; its facade is divided into three storeys by prominent cornices, with pilasters and niches on the front and side walls. The church lost its roof and the tops of its facade towers, and an 18th-century wall with two towers and a gate surrounds the complex.

A Jesuit mission began in Juravičy in 1673, when Marcin Turawski brought the wonder-working icon of the Virgin Mary and a wooden chapel was built. A brick church and residence followed in the first half of the 18th century, and a college with a bursa operated from 1778. The tsarist authorities dissolved the monastery in 1832, and after the 1863 uprising the church passed to the Orthodox Church and became a women's monastery.

The monastery's church is dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin, and the Yurovichi icon of the Mother of God drew both Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims from the 1670s, with special prayers and hymns written for it. The wonder-working icon was taken to Kraków in 1865 and placed in the Church of St Barbara; a copy found in a nearby village after 1993 was carried back in procession from the Mozyr cathedral.

The complex stands on a horseshoe plan on Hill Street in Yurovichi, with an 18th-century wall, two towers and a gate. The former Jesuit church lost its roof and both tower tops, so it is a ruin; the residential building keeps its vaulted interiors and refectory hall. The site is an active Orthodox monastery, so check locally before entering.

The wonder-working Yurovichi icon was hidden in 1865: the last priest, Hugo Godzetsky, had a copy painted by Jadwiga Kieniewicz of Derechin and sent the original to St Barbara's Church in Kraków, where a copy remains today. The original was later found in a nearby village and returned in procession.