People who have left a trace in history. Counts Czapski. Minsk, Belarus.

dmilash (63)in #life • 8 years ago (edited)

The genus of Count Czapski appeared in Belarus in the 17th century. It is the oldest German-Polish family Hutten-Czapski. They wore the title of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire for 500 years. The roots of this kind are present in many noble dynasties of Europe.

Today, I will not write about the whole Count Czapski people, I name their achievements for Belarus.

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Karol Czapski in 30 years old took office of mayor in Minsk. At that time, Minsk was an ordinary provincial city with a population of 100 thousand people. That was in 1890.

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First Karol Czapski finished building of the city theater, which is now called the National Theater named after Yanka Kupala.

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He worked for free, and he put his money in the urban infrastructure. His dream was to make Minsk such as European capital.

With his leadership the residents of Minsk first saw and learned:

City Theatre,

tram,

cobbled streets,

street lights,

The first Minsk Power Plant,

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The first Telephone exchange (Karol Czapski built the first telephone exchange in Minsk in 1890, there was a telephone in Minsk before than in St. Petersburg).

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He also opened the brewery, water pipes, the city baths, soup kitchens, homes for the homeless, the city pawnshop, two schools and a women's school, the public library, a Society of fans of sports and a Society of women protection. He did everything to facilitate the development of trade between provinces, he built bridges, roads. He organized the first mortgage lending. This list can be listed for a long time.

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His father, Czapski Emerick, was very well-known collector. He gathered a huge collection of coins, medals, paintings, icons, weapons, porcelain, furniture, etc. Volume collection was accommodates 12 railway cars and was on display in the great museums of Europe - London, the Louvre, Potsdam, Dresden, Moscow, Berlin, Krakow.

Now in Minsk are the following buildings that are built Karol Czapski - a city theater and brewery.

The National Theatre

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