Iwye

General information

Iwye is a town in the Grodno region and in the center of Iwye district. Iwye is a small town with 9, 000 people located 136 km from Minsk and 158km from Grodno. Iwye is located on the river Ivyanka winding between Nalibokskaya dense forest and Gavya swamps. In the past, trade routes could pass only through the Iwye which contributed to the town’s development.

Lida Plane stretches in the northwest of the region and Verhnenemanskaya lowlands are located in the south. The district has two peat deposits and three deposits of sandy material.

History of Iwye

There are several theories about the origin of the name ‘Iwye’. One legend states that it was named after Eve, the wife of Prince Gedymin, who liked these lands, surrounded by weeping willows where the castle was built, around which settlement had begun to grow. According to another legend, the name derives from the Tatar word ‘Eve’ which means nest and/or residence. The town was mentioned for the first time in written sources in 1444 as a grand courtyard, donated by Prince Casimir to Petr Montygerdovich. However, at the very beginning of the 15th century Grand Duke Vitovt settled in these places the Tatars brought from the Sea of Azov. Since then many Tatars lived in Iwye and as such there is a mosque built in 1884 with the funds of Countess Elvira Avgustovna Zamoyskaya. In her honour a memorial plaque was placed inside the mosque. Throughout the Soviet years that mosque was the only one of its kind in Belarus. Iwye is considered the unofficial Tatar ‘capital’ of Belarus – the town annually celebrates Islamic holiday bringing together the Belarusian Tatars.

Throughout its long history, Iwye changed its owners several times. Famous gentry’ families owned it during various times in history and these included the Zabzhezinskie, Kishki, Oginskie, Sapieha and Tyzengauz. As a result of the 3rd partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 Iwye became a part of the Russian Empire.

Iwye reference information

Sightseeing in Iwye

Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Iwye is one of the town’s famous sights, it was constructed back in the mid 15th century. Due to its size and location the church can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. In the 17th century a two-storey monastery was built next to the church which is preserved to date. In 2002, a statue of Jesus was erected near the church which resembles the statue in Rio de Janeiro only of a much smaller size.

There are several synagogues in the city, the oldest of which dates back to the 19th century. Another interesting sight to visit is the watermill also built in the 19th century. Among other religious objects the Catholic Chapel of St. Barbara in Iwye also deserves some recognition.
Single-storey buildings with attics from the 19th – early 20th centuries on Karl Marx Street will give an idea of how the city looked like before. Travel to Iwye will ultimately be a memorable experience.

Accommodation in Iwye

The choice for tourist accommodation is diverse. There are hotels, country houses, a couple of farmsteads and sanatorium called ‘Raduga’.

Economy

Enterprises in the region have a very diverse spectrum of production such as concrete products, ritual accessories, canned vegetables, potato starch, bakery products, confectionery, meat products, timber and garments. Some also do fish salting, packing of roasted seeds and nuts, perform milling grain and sawing wood, produce animal feed, asphaltic concrete and sand-gravel mixtures. Agriculture specializes in the production of meat, dairy products, cereals, sugar beets and flax.