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GREAT WORLD OF SMALL CITIES


Suprasl has already been recommended for its appealing attributes as a health resort. The town also has a number of important sights and buildings. In the center of the city is the Bucholtz Palace, dating from the end of the 19th century. It is an excellent example of the then fashionable eclecticism in architecture and interior design. The house at Sz. Konarski Street is a former inn, built at the end of the 18th century. The building is in the mansion style, very rarely found today in the Bialystok region. Its hip-roof and beam junctures are typical of Polish construction of the period.

Cemeteries are located on both sides of the road leading from Suprasl to Bialystok. On the south side is a Catholic cemetery (formerly uniate) with a wooden and brick chapel dating from the end of the 19th century. On the opposite or north side of`the road is a Protestant cemetery where there are two particularly interesting chapels: one in the neo-Gothic style, built in 1904, once belonging to the Bucholtz family; the other was built in 1885 in the classical style for the Zachert family. At the rear of the Bucholtz chapel is Professor Witold Slawinski's tomb. Professor Slawinski devoted his life and scientific work to the Knyszyn Forest. Suprasl's Protestant church in neo-Gothic style, built at the end of the 19th century, is another reminder of the town 's evangelical community. Next to the Protestant church stands a Catholic parish church. Built in 1861-65, it was closed for many years because of the "January Uprising" and the subsequent repression by the Russians.

The Basilian Monastery is the most prized building in Suprasl. Actually it is a complex of buildings, comprised of the reconstructed Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, the Orthodox Church of John the Theologist (dating from 1890), an archimandrite 's palace, the monastery itself; and an entrance tower.

The Basilian monks settled in the Suprasl area in the early 1500's. The Orthodox Church of the Annunciation was built in the years 1503-13 and destroyed during the war in 1944. Like the Orthodox churches in Synkowicze and Nowomozejkow, it was built as a fortress and blended the styles of Byzantine and Latin architecture. This church is now being restored.


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