8 Kolobrzeska, Bydgoszcz, Poland
The Monastery of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Supraśl is an Orthodox male monastery, the origins of which date back to the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. It is the most valuable and the most beautiful monument in Supraśl in Podlasie. The monastery was founded by Aleksander Chodkiewicz before 1497. In the courtyard of the monastery complex there is a defensive Renaissance church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the years 1503-11. Destroyed during the war in 1944, it is now beautifully reconstructed. From the very beginning, the Supraśl Icon of the Mother of God was worshiped here - a copy of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, highly revered in Russia. Unfortunately, in 1915, the monks from Supraśl, together with the Orthodox population, fled from the Germans to Russia and took the icon, which never returned to Supraśl. Its copy from the nineteenth century is located in the local church of St. John the Theologian, and the faithful now pray before her and make pilgrimages to her. The monastery complex in Supraśl also includes: Archimandrites' Palace built in 1635-55, the Church of John the Theologian from 1888, the gate - belfry built in 1752 and baroque monastic buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Monastery is also the seat of the Suprasl Academy and the local Orthodox parish (in the deanery of Białystok). The monastery also houses the Museum of Icons consist about 400 copies. It is the largest collection of icons in Poland.
