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Pinsk

Description of the Coat of Arms: "In the red field of the" baroque shield ", or" Germanic "shield there is a golden stretched bow, the steel arrowhead points to the left. Red color represents courage and valor. Yellow color symbolizes wealth and power. Bow and arrow are historical symbols of the city, symbolising historical and cultural continuity. In heraldry, a stretched bow is a symbol of readiness to repel any aggression. It was not once during the city's long history that it had to resist numerous attacks of the foreign aggressors.

Pinsk on old photograph

About Pinsk:

Pinsk is an administrative center of the Brest region with the population of 130,000 people. It was first mentioned in the "Story of Bygone Years" in 1097. The name of the city originates from the river Pina, the left tributary of the Pripyat River on which it stands.  In 1174 Pinsk was the capital of the independent Pinsk principality. In 1320 Prince Gedimin annexed Pinsk to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, of which Pinsk was a part within the XIV, XV and the XVI centuries. In 1396 in the city the Franciscans Cathedral was founded. After the Union of the Great Duchy of Lithuania with Poland in 1569, Pinsk became the center of the Brest province. of Rzeczpospolita, the so-called common state of Lithuanians and Poles. A Jesuit collegium was built in Pinsk in 1717 and in 1784 the Bernardine monastery was set up.  In 1784 Pinsk was visited by the Polish King Stanislaw August Poniatowski. From 1793 to the October revolution of 1917 Pinsk was part of the Russian Empire. In 1812 the city was occupied by the French and was partly burnt. At the beginning of the XIXth century telephone connection emerged and first movies could be watched by the city's residents. A rail road Pinsk-Lunninets was built and a number of enterprises were opened including a sugar plant and ship repairing and matches plants. During the First World War Pinsk was occupied by Germans. In 1919-1921 there was a Soviet-Polish war, which was going on with varying success. But eventually the war was lost by the Soviet Russia, and according to the Riga Peace Treaty of 1921, the western part of the Belarusian and Ukrainian lands were withdrawn to Poland. Thus Pinsk found itself within the territory of Poland. On September 7, 1921 a fire broke out in the central part of the city, which almost completely destroyed it.  In September-October 1934 Pinsk and the Pinsk region was visited  by the world-famous American traveler Louise Arner Boyd with a scientific expedition. On September 20, 1939 the Red Army liberated the city. Pinsk was joined the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The first blow was struck at the territory of the BSSR. Already on July 4, 1941 Pinsk was occupied by German troops. On October 28, 1942 the Pinsk ghetto was destroyed, all its inhabitants - about 17 thousand people - were killed. On July 14, the 28th and  the 61st Army, as well as the Dnieper Military Flotilla liberated the city of Pinsk.  In the postwar decades, Pinsk recovered and developed. The boundaries of the city were broadened, large enterprises were built and production associations were created, new residential areas were erected. In the years of Independence of the Republic of Belarus, Pinsk quickly changed its appearance, turning into a large, modern industrial and cultural center.

Tourist Attraction No. 1 in Pinsk -  Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (earlier, in the XVII-XVIII centuries, the Franciscan monastery was here) can be called the most prominent and interesting place in Pinsk. It is a bright example of baroque in all its forms. There is the monastery next to it. The latter includes several buildings with a height of two and three floors. These buildings form pretty courtyards. The cathedral together with the monastery buildings and a slender bell tower form a fine architectural ensemble. The magnificent interior of the Cathedral is also worth seeing.

Other sights of  Pinsk and  Pinsk district can be forund in the section of the website: "Excursions & muuseums"

 Interesting facts about Pinsk and Pinsk district

• Director of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer - his ancestors on the maternal line had a surname Dvorkin;
• In Pinsk, the former Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir spent several years of her childhood. Her mother Bluma Naybich was a native Pinsk girl;
• In Pinsk studied and lived Motol Chaim Weizmann who subsequently became the first president of Israel.
• Semyon Kuznets, an American economist, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize was born in Pinsk.