The book "Гародня" (eng. " Harodnia" - historical name of Grodno) is dedicated to my native town and raises the problem of the loss of its architectural heritage.

 

Grodno is indeed royal town where took place residences of many great monarchs of Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. A century ago, it was full of old buildings and sublime temples, magnificent palaces and imposing castles, which created a unique architectural ensemble of the town. Numerous wars and fires, German and Polish occupation, Soviet regime and simply time - this is what has deprived the city of a significant part of its historical and architectural heritage, about which many citizens have forgotten. Now we live

in the 21st century, but old buildings of Grodno continue be destroyed and deteriorate day after day. Maybe exactly so called “historical and cultural amnesia” of town inhabitants is the reason for the destructioncontinuation?

 

Year after year, Grodno loses significant buildings of past centuries for the pur-pose of development of a modern infrastructure. More and more new shopping centers appears, districts are getting built up with elite high-rise buildings, but no one notices how the city lost its face. Undoubtedly, this book will not solve the problem of the destruction of historic buildings of Grodno, but it, at least, draw peoples’ attention to it and show how the city looked like before.