The southern facade of the Cabin of Peter the Great. View from the side of Nizhne-Pokrovskaya St. (photo of 1902)
Western facade of the Cabin of Peter the Great (photo of the early 20th century)
Cabin of Peter the Great (photo of the second half of the 40s of the XX century)
Cabin of Peter the Great (photo of 1944)
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. 33 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street (known as the Cabin of Peter the Great) is the oldest civil building in Polotsk. The architecture of this building has features of the Baroque style, which is characterized by complexity of forms, dynamism of the image, striving for grandeur and splendor.
The well-known date of construction of the Cabin of Peter the Great is 1692, but recent archaeological research allows us to attribute the beginning of its construction to the middle of the 17th century. The original building was wooden, on a high stone plinth, but after significant damage during the Russo-Polish War (1654-1667) in the late 17th century it was already rebuilt of brick. The next large-scale repair of the building took place in 1780 in connection with the visit of Empress Catherine II to Polotsk.
Before the Great Patriotic War the building was used as a dwelling, and after the liberation of Polotsk in 1944 it housed the city library, later the children's library. In 1964 the children's library was named after Leo Tolstoy, and a monument to the famous writer was erected in front of the main facade of the building. In 1997 the library was moved to another district of the city, and the Cabin of Peter the Great housed the museum of the Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve — a stationary exhibition "A Walk along Nizhne-Pokrovskaya".
According to the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 578 of 14.05.2007, the house No. 33 on Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street is included in the State List of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Belarus.