Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street (postcard of the late 19th — early 20th century) (in the foreground on the left is a wooden building, which was located next to house No. 6 (corresponds to today's house No. 4 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street)
Panorama of the development of the right bank of the Dvina (postcard of the late 19th — early 20th c.)
Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street is one of the oldest streets in Polotsk. Historical sources confirm its existence already in the second half of the 11th — beginning of the 12th century. From the 13th century the street was densely populated, served as one of the main streets in the city, it was crossed by the Dvina River to the city markets, churches, synagogues, Catholic and Orthodox monasteries were located on it, the richest and most influential citizens lived there.
The first known name of this street was Velikaya Street. In the last quarter of the 18th century (in connection with the construction of St. Pokrovskaya Church) it was renamed into Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street, in 1919 — into Lenin Street, and in 2008 the street again returned the name Nizhne-Pokrovskaya. It received its current direction in accordance with the classicist plan of Polotsk developed and approved in the late 18th century, which gave the layout of the historical center of the city the features of regularity.
House No. 6 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street was built in the last quarter of the 19th century. This monument is a vivid representative of architectural eclecticism of the late 19th — early 20th century, which is characterized by the combination of a number of architectural styles of different eras.
It is documented that in the middle of the 19th century the plot of the modern house No. 6 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street belonged to the collegiate assessor Henry (Heinrich) Marzelevich Lapitsky, who bought it in 1814 from the noblewoman Praskovia Zubkova. The historic site was much larger than the existing one, with a large wooden house and numerous outbuildings.
The existing stone two-storey house was built not earlier than the last quarter of the 19th century. We can connect the construction of stone part with the construction of the Lutheran church on the opposite side of the street in the late 19th century.
It is known that at the border of the 19th and 20th centuries, the house belonged to the Evangelist-Lutheran parish — the priest of the church lived there. In Soviet times the building was adapted for administrative functions.
In the 1970s it housed the house administration, in the 1990s the building belonged to the financial-industrial company "INVIS" and was also administrative. Since 2007 the house No. 6 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street has been privately owned, the building has been adapted to a commercial facility, partially retaining its administrative functions.
According to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 578 dated May 14, 2007, the house No. 6 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street is included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Belarus.