 |
| photo of the embankment of the town of Rechitsa. |
One of the oldest cities in the Republic of Belarus was founded in 1213.
There was a castle in this city, but now only the ramparts have remained from it, on the banks of the Dnieper River.
This city was once a part of different states, but now it is a part of the Republic of Belarus, the Gomel region.
On the border with Ukraine and Russia. The city is currently home to almost 70,000 people in 2020.
 |
| Frame and cartoon Pacahontas |
Another interesting story is that at one time John Smith was here, who became the prototype of the character from the Disney cartoon, Pocahontas.
Here's what it says in the article below on John Smith.
The first English colonies in America were fortified on the model of the Rechitsa castle
We learned how the American pioneer captain John Smith is connected with our lands and with the Indian princess Pocahontas from the famous cartoon.
A lot has been written about one of the pioneers of the colonization of America, the Englishman John Smith. It all began with the captain's own autobiographical books: the last, True Voyages, he published in London in 1630 - a year before his death at 51. But, of course, Hollywood promoted Smith's persona the most. His biography was filmed more than once, and the story of his acquaintance with the Indian princess Pocahontas formed the basis of the Disney cartoon of the same name. But few people know that Smith's biography also includes a trip to Belarusian lands.
THE CAPTAIN'S GIVEN TO THE ORIENTAL BEAUTY
 |
| John Smith in a portrait from an engraving memoir |
... John Smith was born in 1580 near Liverpool in a family of wealthy peasants. Left without a father and having quarreled with his mother, as a teenager, he dropped out of school and became an apprentice to a wealthy merchant. Then he ended up in Holland, which fought with Spain for independence, and he was accepted into the navy. After his first wanderings, 20-year-old John returned to England but again went on a journey - this time to Hungary, where he received the rank of captain for bravery in battle with the Turks.
While crossing the Carpathians, the wounded Smith from the battlefield was taken prisoner by Turkey. From there the young captain was ransomed into slavery by the noble Turk Bogal and sent John as an outlandish gift to his bride Cheriza in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) at the very beginning of 1603. But between the elegant European military man and the oriental beauty, serious passions began to play. Out of harm's way, the girl's relatives send Smith to the Crimean Khanate - to Azov.
On the way, John Smith was treated more like a guest with a disability. But in Azov, the ruler Timor Basha dressed Smith in a rough robe and hung the yoke of a slave around his neck. John did not work long in threshing wheat. Once Timor Basha came to the field and began to beat the Englishman for some kind of omission. Then the enraged Smith beat the ruler to death with a chain, and then on his horse rushed into the steppe, in the Wild Field, where, except for the Tatars and Cossacks, no one risked being.
John was helped to survive there by his naval knowledge of navigation: guided by the sunrises and sunsets, he moved to the West. On the road, as he wrote in his book, to Kastragan (Astrakhan), he met signs in the form of the sun - the direction to China, the crescent - the direction to the Islamic lands, as well as a cross. The latter showed the way to the Christians, and Smith rode along it across the steppe for 16 days. The Englishman admits in his memoirs: during this time he lost hope of survival. But soon he got to the Moscow outpost, where the local head (or the governor, as Smith calls him), having figured it out, ordered to remove the yoke from the foreigner. John goes with a caravan to Moscow, but for some reason in Bryansk ("Bernisk") the travelers turned first to Novgorod-Seversky ("Nevgrod in Siberia"), and then, in the fall of 1603, crossed the border of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ... So Smith turned out on our lands.
UNDER THE SPEECH OF SMITH IMPRESSED VILLAGE HOUSES
Why the route changed is not explained in his book by Smith. But he writes that he ended up in "Litania, in Rechitsa on the Niper River." American historian Zora Kipel, who moved to the States from Belarus immediately after the war, was the first, back in the 1970s, to draw attention to the connection between Captain Smith and Belarusian history. She described the povet Rechitsa at the beginning of the 17th century. In the city on the high bank of the Dnieper, there was a castle with five towers - part of the defense of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on the Dnieper from the time of Prince Vitovt.
It is curious that in non-war times the guards of the castle performed socially useful work - from collecting firewood to cleaning - work. Around the castle, there is an earthen rampart and a moat with water, the entrance is through a drawbridge. Another defensive line separated the houses of ordinary townspeople and the magistrate, temples. About 2 thousand residents of Rechitsa were engaged, among other things, in timber rafting and the construction of canoes, the production of resin. And thanks to the river port, the city also had a customs clod, where they collected duties (“myta”) from merchants.
Judging by his memoirs, Smith did not stay in Rechitsa for long. He does not name the people he met with but says he was received by officials. He notes: he never felt more attention and hospitality to himself than in ON. John said that civilized people live here, well dressed and with interesting furniture in their houses. Smith also left notes about the Polesye villages: the houses here are made of logs laid one on top of the other, connected by notches at the corners: the technologies of rural development are familiar to us. Smith was impressed by the Polissya swamp roads, lined with cut rounds from the logs, which could be driven for two or three days.
He does not remember more about the Belarusian lands on his trip to the West. And about the road to the next point of travel after Rechitsa, Korosten in Ukraine, he does not write anything, although Loev and Bragin should have been on his way. In the latter, Zora Kipel notes, the young prince and party-goer Adam Vishnevetsky ruled ...
How the modern city of Rechitsa looks now.
Video of the city of Rechitsa 2020.
And if you want to visit this beautiful city, you can find out the details by writing to us in the form below how to do it.
