Michalishki

Location: The development of the town (Pol. “miasteczkа”) was associated with a convenient location on the route from Vilnius to Polatsk, just near the crossing over the river Viliya. This path was used by King Stefan Batory during a military expedition to Polatsk in 1581. Later, gunpowder and provisions from Kaunas were delivered to Michalishki via the river Viliya, and then by land to Pastavy. Kanstantsin Tyshkevich also visited the town during the famous expedition via the Viliya River before its confluence with the Neman in 1857: “It was already at sunset, and it was beginning to get dark, when, at dusk, on the left bank of the river, two low but very accurately proportioned towers turned white. Nearby one could see a church with a small dome, planted on a clean, freshly painted roof. In a nutshell, the evening twilight transformed before our eyes into wonderful, beautiful Italian architecture, not a very large stone church, a two-storey stone clergy house (Bel. “плябанія”, Pol. plebania) behind it, surrounded by blackened wooden houses, separated by a wide path leading from Vilnius to Polatsk”.