In the area near the village of Janava in Haradok district efforts of Viciebsk local historian Sergei Pankratyev, who was born and raised in this village at the crossroads of old roads set carved from a boulder huge cross-defender. The custom install these crosses formed in Belarus, with the arrival of Christianity on our lands.
Quite often, these crosses were placed on the site of ancient pagan temples, at the crossroads near the church, near the settlements. This tradition was spread in other European countries: Great Britain, Czech Republic, Poland, near Pskov, but she received a special distribution is in Belarus.
This cross ethnographer Sergei Pankratyev learned twenty years ago. It was known that the cross was buried in the road surface during the construction of the bridge to the village Šykieni. It should be noted that in Soviet times, such a method of destruction of religious symbols was quite common: the cross and destroyed, and the use of some kind there. In one of the spring floods washed away the road and cross out of the land, as a miracle. Tractor pulled to the roadside, where he lay for a long time, waiting in the wings.
Where was this cross before, I could not figure out. None of the local people, the old-timers did not say when he was removed from his usual place. With a certain probability we can say that it was made in Soviet times, when waged a persistent struggle with religion and religious symbols, although no evidence and witnesses of this event has not been preserved. But next to the cross is preserved with a large lump of solar signs – so-called arrows Perun, the analysis was conducted by the monument to the history of the local history museum, the exhibition which is available with the summary of the study.
Before you install the cross, it was necessary to choose the right place to make a sand podsypku, pedestal, and to stabilize the construct certain groove – it was all done. With the help of technical means of the cross installed. Settling place, ahead of the dispensation of Gentile lumps with solar signs.
Known Viciebsk ethnographer Mikhail Pavlov, who, incidentally, also comes from the Haradok district, explained why it was installed the cross and what is its historical value: "Here are just a crossroads of ancient ways. One of them came from Viciebsk to Połacak, and has been known since the 12th century. This fact I learned from the book of the famous explorer Viciebsk and Smalensk land Leonid Alexeev. It is at the crosshairs of such stone crosses and sets earlier. The historical value of this sign is undeniable. It could be used as a talisman, and, in some ritual purposes. And given the fact that next to the cross found a pre-Christian lump of solar signs, we can assume that somewhere nearby was once a pagan temple. In short, a historic place, a ritual, a symbolic".
Vitebsk Spring
