Nuns Destroy School Built by Holy Martyrs in Navahrudak, Now Ask for Money for New Building
The Sisters of Nazareth built a school for the city with their own efforts, and during the war, voluntarily gave their lives in exchange for the liberation of local residents. Their modern successors have destroyed the martyrs' legacy for a new complex project that cannot be legally realized.
The demolition of the Sisters of Nazareth convent building on May 1st Street began already in spring. Now the sisters have recorded a video appeal, in which they announced that nothing, not even the foundations, remains of the convent. And they called for donations for a new facility.
As the "Spadchyna" Telegram channel reports, the Sisters of Nazareth arrived in Navahrudak on September 4, 1929. Bishop Zygmunt Łoziński handed over a house opposite the Fara Church and a plot of land to them, but the local *starosta* (head) refused to vacate the building. Because of this, the nuns initially opened a school in rented premises, and after the lease agreement was terminated in 1932, they began constructing their own facility. The construction of the wooden two-story school building took place from February to September 1933. The sisters themselves settled nearby in a one-story brick residential building.
In 1939, the Soviet authorities confiscated the school building and converted it into a Soviet ten-year school offering Russian and Polish languages of instruction. To remain on their property, the nuns found work there as cleaners. However, they were soon evicted, first from the residential building, and in the spring of 1940, the remaining outbuildings were also confiscated. The sisters were forced to disperse to private apartments of local acquaintances.
With the onset of the German occupation in 1941, the nuns were able to return to their convent house, but the school itself was first occupied by Wehrmacht soldiers, and later by local collaborators—"rahuleutsy" (a derogatory term). Soon the collaborators again evicted the sisters, ordering them to move into an empty, former Jewish house on the same street.
The tragic climax occurred in the summer of 1943 during the German punitive operation "Hermann." On the night of July 18, the Gestapo arrested about 120 local residents and Father Aleksander Zienkiewicz for subsequent execution. On July 31, Maria Stella (Adela Mardasewicz) and ten other Sisters of Nazareth voluntarily went to the Gestapo, offering their lives in exchange for the arrested. The German authorities agreed: the townspeople were sent to forced labor in the Reich (all of whom survived the war), and on August 1, 1943, eleven nuns were shot in the Batorovsky Forest. Only one of them, Małgorzata Banaś, managed to escape death, as she secretly lived in the small utility house next to the school. A few days after the killings, the German occupiers removed and looted the congregation's belongings.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified 11 Navahrudak martyrs. Later, the historic school building was returned to the congregation and renovated thanks to donations from the faithful.
In the video appeal, the sisters also showcased the project for a new building on the school site and the laying of its foundations. The Sisters of Nazareth plan to construct a three-story brick building, resembling early 2000s offices, covered with a pitched roof and featuring large murals on the end walls, which bears no resemblance to the historical structure.
However, as "Spadchyna" points out, the project's quality is low, featuring clearly disproportionate elements. Furthermore, this project cannot be legally realized in this location under any circumstances.
According to the protection zone project for the historical center of Navahrudak, the Sisters of Nazareth's plot is located in an area where the construction of buildings exceeding 8 meters in height is prohibited. Therefore, building more than two stories under a pitched roof will not be possible. If this is considered new construction—as nothing, not even the foundations, remains of the old building—then the new structure must be more than half the size of the previous one in terms of its footprint (maximum 8 by 12 meters). Furthermore, it is explicitly forbidden to alter the architecture of a development during its repair or reconstruction.
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