Location: Plisa was an important point on the ancient Way of Algirdas. The distance from Plisa to Vilnius is 194 km, to Polatsk – 65 km. In addition, Plisa is connected by land with Dzisna (54 km). Thus, transport communication between Vilnius and Polatsk through Hlybokaye in Skaryna’s times could be carried out in two ways: by land and by water-land (via Dzisna).
Plisa in Skaryna’s times
The first written mention of Plisa dates back to the 7th July 1507, when the Grand Duke Sigismund the Old issued a deed confirming the purchase by Mikalay Petukh of the “eternal right” on the estate of Plisa, including three folwarks, the village of Baloshniki and all gardens, fields, yard buildings and other property from the famous hetman Kanstantsin Ivanavich Astrozhski. The deed confirmed the eternal right to use the land and buildings, as well as rivers, ponds, mills, by both the children of the owner and his descendants.
According to the Polatsk census of 1552, Plisa had the status of a town (Pol. miasteczka) and was owned by the richest representative of the nobility of the Polatsk voivodeship Dzmitryy Bahdanavich Korsak. The latter was informally considered the eldest among the Polatsk boyars and, according to the census, owned 494 homesteads in the Polatsk voivodeship. At that time, there were 54 bourgeois homesteads in Plisa, which were under servitude, and 9 bourgeois homesteads of new settlers who were exempt from taxes. Given that in those days the families were large (one homestead (“hearth”) included 8 to 10 people), about 620 people were living in Plisa in the middle of the 16th century. There were also 2 taverns and the St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Church in the town. Subsequently, Plisa repeatedly changed its owners.
Plisa from the 17th century to this day
The Cross of Plisa
The Plisa Stone Cross of the 14th–18th centuries stood at the entrance to the town on the old Way of Algierd. The exact time of the appearance of the cross is unknown. There is a legend that it was made by the residents of the neighbouring village of Kryvichy after one person was burned in vain for witchcraft. The smoke went straight up, which meant that the man was holy and his soul flew to heaven.
The cross is carved from grey granite, has the shape of a so-called Latin cross, when the horizontal line is divided in half by the vertical line, and the horizontal line must be located above the middle of the vertical line. Another cross is embossed at the junction.
The phenomenon of stone crosses is known in various European countries. About 200 of such crosses are known to be in Belarus. Stone crosses were placed at crossroads, on the outskirts of villages, on the borders of lands and in cemeteries as protection against epidemics and wars. There is a stone cross not far from Plisa, near the village of Babruyshchyna.
In 2007, the cross was moved to the centre of the modern village of Plisa and erected opposite the Orthodox St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa Church, built in 1887.