Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vyhostovitsa Wielka - a historic Baroque church from the mid-18th century in Vyhostovitsa Wielka, a district town of the Grodno region of the Republic of Belarus. Former (until 1865) Roman Catholic parish church, now a branch of the local parish of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

History
Tradition links the establishment of the first church in Bžostovitsa with Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. However, a more likely date for the foundation of the parish and the erection of the wooden church is 1522, when it was founded by the then owner of the estate, Novogrudok voivode and Lithuanian court marshal Aleksander Chodkiewicz. Another church, probably in a new location - by the town square, was founded by the Castellan of Vilnius Hieronim Chodkiewicz in 1615, and was given the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Stanislaus, patron saints of the Polish Kingdom. There are reports in the literature that the founder planned to hand over the church to the Carmelites, but this is not confirmed by the sources.

In 1661, Zofia of Pacs Chodkiewicz, widow of the next owner of Brzostowica, Jan Kazimierz Chodkiewicz, erected a chapel at the church with the status of an altar, with a sepulchral function as the family necropolis in mind.

The church housed the venerated miraculous painting of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary of the Ore Mountains.

The Baroque brick church, which still stands today, was founded in 1741 by Grand Crown Marshal Jozef Vandalin Mniszch, then owner of Brzostowica. It was given the invocation of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to honour the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary of the Ore Mountains. In the altar of the Chapel of the Guardian Angels there was the title painting by Lukasz Smuglewicz. The church housed the tombstone of the heart of the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Voivode of Vilnius Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (died at Chocim in 1621), which was moved from the old temple.

In 1865, by a decision of the Grodno governor, the parish was liquidated and the church closed, despite reminders from the owner of the estate, Stanisław Szczęsny Kossakowski. During the closure by soldiers, the temple was profaned, including the devastation of the crypts. Following an appeal by Count Kossakowski, only the burial of the profaned corpse in the Catholic cemetery was allowed. In 1866, the church was converted into an Orthodox church and given the invocation of the Image of the Saviour Not Made by Human Hand. The remnants of the furnishings were donated to neighbouring active churches. During the First World War, the Germans placed a grain warehouse here.

In 1908 a new parish of the Transfiguration of Our Lord was established in Brzostowica, and between 1908 and 1912 a new church was built at the expense of the then owners of the estate, Jozef Stanislaw and Maria of Chodkiewicz Kossakowski, and the parishioners. In 1920, the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was returned to the faithful, on 25 April 1920 it was reconsecrated and until the Second World War it was a branch of the Parish of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The church was returned to the parish in a dilapidated state, and by 1939 it had been repaired three times.

In the summer of 1944, the church was severely damaged during the passage of the front through Brzostowica, as it was a defence point for the Germans. After 1945, it housed a tobacco warehouse, remained closed after the war and was nationalised in 1963. It housed a furniture warehouse and the warehouse of the district food cooperative. The building gradually became more and more devastated. In 1990 it was returned to the Catholics, but for more than two decades it remained unused and in semi-ruin. In 1992, the roof collapsed. Finally, a major reconstruction was carried out in 2018.

In the 17th century, the parish had one branch chapel in Rudawa, and a chapel at the Moszny manor was also recorded in 1782. In the 19th century there was also a wooden chapel in the Catholic cemetery, which was subordinate to the parish of Ejsmonty Wielkie; the chapel burnt down in 1976.

. Architecture
The oriented church is situated on the eastern frontage of the town square, on a slight elevation. The Baroque, monumental, brick building was built on a Latin cross plan, in form and layout referring to the monastic churches (e.g. Jesuit churches) of the 17th century. It has a basilica-like three-bay body, a transept protruding beyond the body and equal in height to the main nave and a semicircularly closed presbytery. The walls of the nave and chancel are articulated in the Tuscan order. In the western bay there is a three-part masonry choir supported by pillar arcades closed with a basket arch, and a porch under the choir. Beneath the whole is a crypt. A square vestry and treasury have been erected adjacent to the chancel.

The façades are segmented with lisens, topped with a wide frieze and a prominent crowning cornice. The windows are segmentally closed. The three-axial, two-storey façade may have had towers on its sides according to the original design, which is indicated by low fragments of a full attic over the side axes. Above the central section, it is topped with a screened gable closed with a three-sided ogive. The lower part is articulated with pilasters in the grand Tuscan order, on the axis there is a semi-circularly closed entrance opening in a spherical recess, and above it an oculus and a rectangular window closed segmentally in a profiled frame. The roof is topped by a little bell turret above the nave.

Original decoration of the church
The rich woodcarving and painting decoration of the church does not exist, and fragmentary accounts do not allow a complete reconstruction of the former baroque decoration of the church. The painting of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, which came from the branch chapel of the Brzostowice parish in Rudawa, was the most venerated in Brzostowice. In 1915, in anticipation of the German invasion, it was sent to the "Synodal cantory" in Moscow, and from there to the Doński Stavropolyal Monastery for safekeeping. He did not return to Brzostovitsa.

Nowadays, only the sculpture of the Crucified Christ (18th century), kept in the Transfiguration Church in Brestovitsa, is known without doubt to come from the Church of the Transfiguration of the Virgin Mary. It is known without any doubt that it comes from the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. It is also possible that the sculpture of St John of God from the 18th century (also referred to as St Felix), which was kept in the cemetery chapel after 1945 and from where it was taken to Minsk by an expedition of the State Art Museum in 1973, originated there.