“Someone is hiding, the other one is finding” . This is the title of the exhibition of treasures of Belarus, which was opened on June 30 in the Grodno State Historical and Archaeological Museum. About 30 treasures are exhibited in the spacious hall of the New Castle in Grodno. Among them is the treasure found in Minchyki of Berestovitsa district.
The residents of Berestovitsa district are most interested in the treasure found on August 18, 1989 on the territory of the frontier post Minchyki by the servicemen Kalenchuk and Kostetskii .
The treasure represents historical things that have been collected for two and a half centuries by the Niemcewicz. The founder of the collection was Julian Ursyn-Niemcewicz.
The composition of the treasure consisted of 68 items. This are silver, military attributes, awards, jewelry cups, coins of the Commonwealth of England, the documents in the name of the Polish captain Jerzy Ursyn-Nemtsevich (1892-1951), the last owner of the estate Teterevka. The treasure was hidden in September 1939 after the accession of the Western Belarus to BSSR.
In the early twentieth century Nyamtsevich intermarried with Kosakovskyi from Berestovitsa and lived in the estate of Teterevka. In the book of Gladyschuk «Nyamtsevichy. True Story «(Minsk, 2009) was published the history of Jerzy Ursyn-Nemtsevich, who was a direct participant of hiding memorabilia under Minchyki.
The letter was a response to the publication of the article «Secret treasure» in the newspaper «Grodnenskaya Pravda” from August 26, 1989. From Jerzy`s letter it was known that the memorabilia had been hidden by three people: by himself, his uncle, military Jerzy Ursyn-Niemcewicz, the owner of the estate Teterevka, and his 16-year-old son Joseph. The writer was at that time 15 years old. They buried the most valuable things. They were two silver cups of the XVII-XVIII centuries. One of them was made in Gdansk by master M. Jacob and decorated with reliefs of scenes on holidays associated with Christmas.
Among military memorabilia — a bronze mace of Andrew Ursyn-Nemtsevich, commander of the victorious battle against the Turks at Vienna in 1683. Mace is symbolic, is a series of portraits of soldiers between the boards with bees. There is also officer`s ryngraf of the XVIII century. On a bronze plate is a Polish eagle wearing a crown with a medal on his chest.
The collection has three awards — badges of regiments of the Polish Army 1920-1929’s, which belonged to the captain Jerzy Ursyn-Nemtsevich, the last owner of Teterevka.
Written by Sergey Khiliuta after Andrey Vtarushyn. Photos made by Andrey Vtarushyn.
