Ruzhany

Ruzhany (Belarusian: Ружаны; former / alternative spellings include Różana and Ruzhinoy [1]) is a small town located in Pruzhany Raion of Brest Voblast, Belarus. Ruzhany is situated on the river Ruzhanka and surrounded by picturesque hills. It is 140 km away from Brest, 38 km from Ivatsevichy (where the nearest railway station is located), 45 km north-east from Pruzhany, on the crossing of the roads from Pruzhany to Slonim and from Vaukavysk to Kosava. The earliest mentioning of Ruzhany dates back to 1552.[2]

Some notable past residents of Ruzhany include:

• The Sapieha family, influential Polish-Lithuanian aristocrats, who built a palace at Ruzhany (see below).
• I. M. Pines, a famous writer and zionist.[3]
• Yitzhak Shamir, former Prime Minister of Israel.

Interesting sights in Ruzhany include:

• Ruzhany Palace: a large and impressive, but mostly ruined complex.
• Two large churches: Trinity Church (Catholic, dating from 1617 [4]) and St Peter & Paul (Orthodox, built 1762-1788 [5]).
• A small unused chapel (St Kazimierz) in the town graveyard.

• An ancient Jewish graveyard [6] and a larged ruined synagogue [7]

• A small German cemetery.

References and external links

• Ruzhany at Radzima.org
• Webpage about Ruzhany's history and present (in Russian)
• Jewish Electronic Encyclopedia page on Ruzhany (in Russian)
• ShtetLinks page on Ruzhany
• Unoficial Ruzhany site