Results of Field Studies of the Walls of a House on St. Nizhne-Pokrovskaya, 20 (Cell Building of the Former Franciscan Monastery) in Polotsk

The article presents the results of the probing work on the walls of the cell building of the former Franciscan monastery. They helped to identify a number of reconstructions of different times, the remains of the constructions and the elements of the original layout and interiors, which is completely lost today and which is partially known only from the inventory descriptions of 1818, 1823 and 1832. Also according to the latest studies, some of the fundamental alterations of the building for the needs of various institutions located there were discovered. The niches with partially preserved wooden shelves and paintings of the XVIII – first third of the XIX centuries and the alterations in the eastern part of the building are of the particular interest. Preserved in the building, the fragment of the completely lost eastern facade of the church became the unique find. That’s how the sequence of the construction of the main buildings of the monastery was clarified