LOEV. Center of Loevsky district of Gomel region
Loev stands on the Dnieper on the border with Ukraine. Founded in the 15th century. The entire centuries-old history of the Loyiv region is connected with the Dnieper, which connects the northern seas with the Black Sea basin, i.e. Scandinavia and Byzantium.
In ancient times, this was a trade route that went down in history under the name “the path from the Varangians to the Greeks.” It was also the main reason for the colonization of the lands of the Dnieper region. And this territory was also a border area for several centuries, a kind of “bone of discord” between the Moscow State and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
More than once or twice, the Loyev region became the scene of bloody hostilities that devastated the region. The crossing of the Dnieper in the Loev area was constantly used by the Crimean Tatars during raids on Belarusian lands. Naturally, settlements on the right bank of the river became their first victims. And even the first chronicle mention of Loev, dating back to 1505, is associated with a similar event, when the city was burned to the ground, and the Tatar troops headed inland - to the Mir Castle and to Slutsk.
Historical buildings have been preserved in Loev, in particular the house of the merchant Naum Dolgin, built in 1847. The building is included in the Republican Register of Architectural Monuments. The restoration of this unique monument lasted seven years and was completed by the 500th anniversary of Loev, which was celebrated on October 17, 2004. Now this building houses the district and children's libraries, as well as the district department of culture.
One of the pages of Loev's history is connected with the Great Patriotic War. During the fascist occupation, this was a partisan region. The crossing of the Dnieper by the Red Army in the Loev area in 1943 is covered with glory. In memory of this, a museum of the Battle of the Dnieper was opened in the city in 1985.
Loevsky district located in the southeast of the Gomel region. Formed on December 8, 1926, abolished on December 25, 1962, restored on July 30, 1966.
It borders with the Braginsky, Gomel, Rechitsa and Khoinitsky districts of the Gomel region and the Repkinsky district of the Chernigov region (Ukraine).
The area of the district is 1.05 thousand square meters. km. On its territory there are 81 settlements, including the urban settlement. Loev, 9 village councils.
The population is 17.3 thousand people. 7.5 thousand people live in urban areas, 9.8 thousand live in rural areas.
The surface of the area is flat, located within the Dnieper lowland.
Minerals: peat, refractory clay, glass sand, brick raw materials.
The average temperature in January is minus 6.9 degrees, in July - plus 19 degrees Celsius. Precipitation is 571 mm per year. The growing season is 194 days.
The Dnieper River with its tributaries Sozh, Braginka, and Peschanka flows through the area.
The soils of agricultural land are sod-podzolic (30.5%), sod-podzolic swampy (35.9%), sod-boggy (6.4%), alluvial-soddy and peat-boggy (25.3%). According to the mechanical composition of mineral soils, 15.1% are loamy, 36.5% are sandy loam, and 41.2% are sandy.
47.5% of the district’s territory (49.9 thousand hectares) is occupied by agricultural land, 37.4% by forest.
Agricultural specialization - meat and dairy farming, grain crops, potatoes.
Industry is represented mainly by producers of food products and building materials.
The territory of the district is crossed by the highways Rechitsa - Loev - Bragin, Bragin - Kholmech. Navigation is carried out along the Dnieper and Sozh.
An ancient village in the Gomel region, located eighty kilometers from the regional center and very close to the Ukrainian border, is famous for its military history. The richness of its history is associated with its geographical location: Loev located on the banks of the Dnieper at the confluence of the Sozh. The origin of the name is associated with the word “loy”, which means fat, which was used to lubricate logs intended for moving boats from one body of water to another.
From antiquity to the present day
Loev has a centuries-old history. On his land there was Dregovichi settlement, one of the ancient Slavic tribes that inhabited the territory of Belarus. Due to its location, the village was a point serving the river fleet back in the era Prophetic Oleg. On the site of modern Loev, at first there was a settlement of the Milograd culture, then - a settlement of the Dregovichi tribe, which belonged to the Chernigov principality. Since the 14th century, the Loev lands have been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Archaeological excavations carried out in Loev suggest that already at that time the Loev Castle was located in the center of the settlement. Unfortunately, even the ruins of the ancient structure have not survived to this day.
The first mention of the town of Loev was found in written sources in 1505 under the name Loeva Gora. Then for the first time it was completely wiped off the face of the earth by the Crimean Tatars, who crossed the Dnieper in this place. The Tatars will visit these lands more than once. It is documented that they passed through the village in 1506, 1536 and 1538 as well. Loev becomes the center of the eldership of the same name, which in 1646 became part of the Starodub povet of the Vilna voivodeship.
The most significant historical event that occurred on the territory of Loev was battle 31 July 1649– the famous battle between the forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Ukrainian Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The protracted Russian-Polish war waged by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Russian Empire devastated the town, but it still remains part of the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1676, the Yuditsky dynasty became the owners of the Loyev lands. The Yuditskys owned Loev until the mid-nineteenth century, then they were replaced by the Losha and Narushkevich families.
The division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which occurred in 1793, gave power over the Loyev lands to the Russian Empire. In 1858, peasant unrest occurred here, which was caused by dissatisfaction with the introduction of duty on timber rafting.
In 1918, the First World War came to the lands of Loev. First, the village is captured by the Germans, then, two years later, by the Poles.
In December, the town was included in the BSSR, and in 1938 it received the status of an urban village. The Great Patriotic War did not pass unnoticed for Loev. It was occupied by the Germans, and during the occupation the underground committees of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Leninist Young Communist League actively functioned on its territory. The name of Loev went down in the history of the war thanks to the crossing of the Dnieper by the Red Army, which occurred in 1943. This historical event gave rise to the opening of the Museum of the Battle of the Dnieper in 1985. It presents an extensive exhibition consisting of weapons from the war, personal belongings of some military leaders, and photographs of ordinary soldiers.
It will also be interesting to visit one of the oldest buildings in Loev – merchant Naum's house, erected in 1847. Its restoration lasted seven long years, as a result of which the building found a second life. Now the architectural monument houses two libraries and a regional department of culture.
Until 1932, there were two Orthodox churches in Loev. The wooden church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was located on the banks of the Dnieper. In 1943, during the Second World War, the Germans were retreating, they decided to destroy Loev and burn it to the ground. The Germans did not have time to fulfill their vile desire. On the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, Loev was released.
The Holy Trinity Cathedral was also located in Loev, with the boundaries of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva and the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. Then it was rebuilt as a school, and later it housed a pedagogical college.
In the city of Loev, at the old Holy Trinity cemetery in 1900, on the third day of the Holy Trinity (June 5), Archpriest Michael Mandrik founded the Holy Trinity Cathedral. It was built at the expense of parishioners from red brick, lined with white brick. Construction of the temple was completed on November 21, 1990. The old house of worship, built in 1946, is located inside the cathedral, where services have never ceased.
In the year of the millennium of the baptism of Rus', on the feast of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, the cathedral was consecrated by Bishop Aristarkh of Gomel and Zhlobin. In 1988, for the feast of the appearance of the icon of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, a chapel was built at the temple.
The Holy Martyr Paraskeva is especially revered in the city of Loev, who in 1710-20. before the Swedish War she revealed her miraculous image. It was on the tenth Friday after Easter in the forest between the villages of Shchitsy and Krupeyki. There, on a pine tree, they discovered the revealed icon of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva. With the procession of the cross, the rector of the Holy Trinity parish escorted the icon to the temple. But after some time the icon ended up in its old place, in the forest. The icon was taken away, but it disappeared from the temple and again found itself where it was before. After this, they stopped taking the icon. On the site of the appearance of the icon during the Swedish War, a fortress town was built. And today you can see the remains of the moat with which it was surrounded. After the Swedish War, as a token of gratitude for the deliverance, a wooden chapel was built at the site of the icon’s appearance, where the icon was placed. In 1872, a temple was built nearby in honor of the Great Martyr Paraskeva. After the Second World War it was used as a grain warehouse, which burned down during a thunderstorm with the first harvest.
The day of the appearance of the Great Martyr Paraskeva became a great holiday for the believers of Loev; on this day many people from different places flocked to pray. Robbers also visited this village. There is a legend about an ataman and 12 robbers. One day they entered the chapel and, seeing the icon revealed, were very surprised: “After all, we often saw this Byrynya in the forest and wanted to rob her, but every time she disappeared.” The influence on the lost souls was so great that they abandoned robbery, and the ataman went to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. And now the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva does not leave the Loyev land. Loev, located 70 km. Chernobyl remained a clean zone. Helicopter pilots monitoring the radiation clouds testified that the clouds were turning away from Loev. The contaminated zone extends only to the site of the appearance of the miraculous icon of the Holy Great Martyr. “Wonderful is God in His Saints,” who has mercy and saves the Orthodox of the Loyev region through the prayers of their heavenly patroness.
