Historic Disna
In the X century the Slavs founded a small settlement called Kopets-town which stands for “Earth Fortress”.
Shallops, barks and boats of the Vikings, European traders and warriors of that time, passed near Kopets. Later fortress Kopets defended the capital Polotsk from frequent attacks of the Livonian Order.
Dvinahas always been lively and brisk international waterway, being a part of the grandiose multinational road “from the Varangians to the Greeks”.
Disna became a real town in 1569, when the Grand Duke Sigismund Augustus granted the second coat-of-arms - «Boat» and the right for autonomy (Magdeburg Rights) to it. The town was built according to the regular plan, developed by German architect Hedemann.
At the same time the castle was also enlarged significantly. It was built by Italian architect S.Gengo, specially invited from the town of Urbino.
During Livonian War Disna was the residence of the king Stefan Batory and the position of rendezvous for formidable army, which was preparing to attack Polotsk, occupied by Ivan the Terrible.
Significant battles of the Russian-Swedish North war (1700 - 1721) bypassed Disna. But the town was completely burned down two times during the wartime, so it didn’t avoid some decay, although the richest duke Aleksandr Menshikov was its head at that time. Representatives of different Christian confessions- Orthodox, Catholics, Uniates – lived together amicably in the town. Orthodox Voskresensky and Catholic Franciscan monasteries were based here.
By the XIX century the growth of the population was mainly due to the Jews. By the early XX century the major share of locals were Jews.
Those people suffered a tragic fate during the Second World War. About 3800 Jews, citizens of the town, who were shot in 1942, were buried in just one of the multiple mass graves.
The population of the town after the Second World War didn’t exceed 2,5 thousands, before the war it amounted to 10 thousands.
However, Disna preserved the air of a district town of the XIX century, where local nobility gave balls on Christmas, Adam Mitskevich wrote verses devoted to wives of landlords, and the professional Belarusian theatre under the direction of Ignat Buynitsky originated, where the streets in old part of the town are still paved.
Those paved streets still remember the promenades of kings and dukes; they remember Yazep Drozdovich, who studied in Disna gymnasium and traveled around the country, paying for shelter and bread with his skills.
Snow-white walls of Voskresenskaya church remember Patriarch Tikhon, who was consecrated a saint. He served in Disna for two years.