Belarus: Ivyanets
Ivyanets is another small historic town in Belarus, this one with two spectacular catholic churches – the sparkling white Church of Michael the Archangel from 1740 and blood-red Church of Saint Alexis from 1905. The Lee is also a russian Orthodox Church. The town itself was a pretty pronounces settlement on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, founded in 1944 on a north/south trade route. Russia came on the 18th century and forced the policy of Russification, converting both catholic churches into Russian orthodox and brutally suppressing an uprising against the Russian rule. German troops occupied the territory in WWI and it stayed under Poland until 1939 when under the Molotov-Ribbentrop packed, Belarus lands were reunited.
