Pruzhany

History

Pruzhany has been known as Dabuchyn since 1487. In the 16th century, it belonged to queen Bona Sforza of Poland. She brought Renaissance influence and development of trades in this part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1589, her daughter Anna granted a town charter and the coat of arms of Pruzhany (a blue snake swallowing a baby on a silver shield). The coat of arms was borrowed from that of the Sforza family of Milan. Pruzhany was a center of pottery trade at those times. In the mid-19th century, a wealthy Polish landlord, Walenty Szwykowski, laid out a park and built a pretentious palace that houses a museum today, after a restoration. The museum has a rich collection on the history and arts of the region. Another tourist attraction is the landmark at the confluence of the Mukha River and the Vets Canal. It presents a statue of a passionate pair rising over waves. The Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in 1884.

The Jewish population in 1900 was 5,080. During World War II, Pruzhany was occupied by the Germans from 26 June 1941 to 17 July 1944. In 1941, the Nazis herded the Jews of Białystok and the vicinity here to create a ghetto. In Aktion roundups on 28-31 January 1943, the Nazis deported 10,000 Jews of the Pruzhany ghetto to Auschwitz, via Birkenau, where the men, women and children were murdered.

In 2003, the central part of the town was reconstructed to prepare the town for the national harvest festival “Dažynki” in autumn 2003.

Pruzhany is the birthplace of Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Torah scholar and Jewish leader. Also, the American actor Mandy Patinkin descends from ancestors from Pruzhany (as well as the nearby shtetl of Drahichyn).

Raisa Žuk-Hryškievič, a prominent figure of the Belarusian diaspora, was born in Pruzhany in 1919.

The former Pruzhany (air base) is nearby.

Climate

| Jan record high C = 5.9 | Feb record high C = 8.2 | Mar record high C = 15.3 | Apr record high C = 23.2 | May record high C = 27.3 | Jun record high C = 30.2 | Jul record high C = 31.8 | Aug record high C = 31.7 | Sep record high C = 26.7 | Oct record high C = 20.7 | Nov record high C = 13.4 | Dec record high C = 7.2 | year record high C = 31.8

| Jan record low C = -19.0 | Feb record low C = -16.7 | Mar record low C = -10.5 | Apr record low C = -3.5 | May record low C = 0.7 | Jun record low C = 4.9 | Jul record low C = 7.9 | Aug record low C = 6.2 | Sep record low C = 0.8 | Oct record low C = -3.9 | Nov record low C = -8.3 | Dec record low C = -14.6 | year record low C = -19.0

|access-date = January 12, 2024}}

Gallery

File:Pruzhany river.jpg|One of the tourist attractions in today's Pruzhany is the landmark at the confluence of the Mukha River and the Vets Canal

Notes

References

References

1. "Численность населения на 1 января 2025 г. и среднегодовая численность населения за 2024 год по Республике Беларусь в разрезе областей, районов, городов, поселков городского типа".
2. "JewishGen.org".
3. ''Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during the Holocaust'', ed. Guy Miro, vol. II, p. 615. Jerusalem: [[Yad Vashem]] (2009)
4. link. (2007-06-22)
5. [http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/StaticPages/421.html The Holocaust Chronicle (accessed 21 September 07)]
6. [https://www.mun.ca/2006report/honour/graduates/riteman.php Dr. Philip Riteman biography, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada (accessed 21 September 07)]
7. [http://www3.sympatico.ca/mighty1/valor/aida2.htm Women of Valor: Partisans and Resistance Fighters (accessed 21 September 07)] {{webarchive. link. (2006-08-23)
8. "On Broadway".
9. (4 February 2017). "Раіса Жук-Грышкевіч".