Nesvizh Church (Church of Jesuits)

Church of the Body of God (Farny Church, Jesuit Church) - a monument of early Baroque architecture - the first building of this style on the territory of the Rzeczpospolita, erected at the end XVI century by Italian architect Giovanni Maria Bernardoni at the expense of the owner of Nesvizh, Prince Radziwill Orphan. The prototype of the church is the Roman temple of Il Gesu, built in 1584 by the architects Vignola and Porta. The church was built in conjunction with a Jesuit college.

The temple is a stone 3-nave cross-domed basilica with an elongated apse, on the sides of which there are 2-story rectangular sacristies, and with 2 faceted chapels. The main facade is completed with a triangular pediment. The building is decorated with deep niches with sculptures of saints (Nicholas, Christopher, Francis and Xavier). On the main façade of the temple there is an inscription in Latin: «I will worship Your holy house in Your fear».

The interior of the church has a lush decoration, the dome and vaults are painted with frescoes. The main altar of the church is decorated with the painting«The Last Supper»by artistHeskey. Art historians count over 40 compositions among the temple’s paintings. They present biblical tales filled with allegories. Among them: «The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek», «Solomon and the Queen of Savskaya», «Abraham Leads Isaac to the Slaughter», «The Holy Family», «Adoration of the Continents», «The Prophet Isaiah», «Elijah’s Blessing of Samuel», «Return of the Prodigal Son» In front of the altar there is a fresco «Apotheosis of the Catholic Church». Above the entrance there is an organ, next to it there are fresco paintings depicting saints playing musical instruments.

The church is also decorated with sculptural works - altars of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary made of marble, as well as several monuments of secular memorial sculpture: monuments to the founder of the templeRadziwill Orphanand his children. A shallow stone relief depicts a baby lying with his arms crossed on his chest on the lid of a coffin strewn with flowers - this is a monument to Orphan’s first-born, who died at the age of two. A large tombstone with a bust was erected in memory of another son of the Orphan, who died at the age of 16 from the plague in Bologna, where the young prince studied at the university. The third relief tombstone, made of sandstone, was made after the death of Orphan. Here the founder of the Nesvizh ordination is presented in the guise of a pilgrim praying against the background of knightly armor. Below is an epitaph composed by the Orphan himself, which says that in the face of death no one is a knight.

The temple is the ancestral tomb of the Radziwills. In the dungeon under the church, in the crypt, in coffins-sarcophagi, lie the embalmed bodies of the Radziwills of many generations. The first to be buried here was Sirotka in 1616. The Nesvizh tomb of the Radziwills is the only necropolis of a historical family in Eastern Europe. It is deservedly placed next to the famous Habsburg crypt in Vienna and the pantheon of Spanish monarchs in the Escorial castle complex, near Madrid.

One of the attractions of the churchyard is the «Bulgarin’s Chapel» or «Tower of the Assassin». It was staged at the beginning of the XVIII century by the grandfather of the Russian writer Thaddeus Bulgarin - Skanderbek Bulgarin. There are opinions that he is buried in it. The history of the tower is as follows: one day, having quarreled with a neighbor, Bulgarin killed him with a gun and very much regretted it. According to the laws of that time, in accordance with the Lithuanian Statute, he had to pay «vira» and gave several villages to the family of the murdered man. And then he built a chapel and spent several days alone, without food or water, atone for his sin and paid 350 years in advance for the annual service for the murdered person.