Walking in the Belarusian city of Orsha, you will definitely notice one of its main attractions, the well-preserved and most recognizable building of the former Catholic monastery of the Jesuit order – the Jesuit College.

The impressively big building of the monastery appeared in 1612 thanks to the support of Polish King Sigismund III. In 1616, Pope Paul V officially confirmed its honorary status as a college. Initially, the building was wooden. According to written sources, the construction of a stone church and a two-story building of the college started around 1690. By the way, the college building itself was completed only in 1803. In addition to the school classes, where the students of the monastery studied foreign languages, mathematics, ancient literature, history, and geography, the college included a seminary and a local theater, as well as a garden and a greenhouse, where the monks grew medicinal plants and herbs. Soon, the monastery opened the first city pharmacy, which still works today.

Although the Jesuit order was banned during the reign of Pope Clement XIV, Empress Catherine the Great allowed the monks to remain in the territory of the Russian Empire. So the college continued to exist until 1820 when the Jesuit monastic order was finally banned by Emperor Alexander I. All the college property was confiscated, the monastery buildings were given to the Dominican order, and the church – to the Orthodox Church. Despite the excellent reconstruction project of the complex in 1835, 5 years later, the church was completely robbed and destroyed. The college was transformed into a city prison.

The monastery underwent a large-scale reconstruction only in 2008, as a result of which the college got a new 26-meter-high tower. It includes several clocks that play a different tune every hour. In 2014, a children's library named after Vladimir Korotkevich and an art gallery with an exhibition hall were open in the building of the former monastery.