In Baranovichi, Belarus, there is the Catholic Church of the Elevation of the Cross, which operated continuously during the Soviet period. The building was constructed in 1925 and has been preserved to this day.

History of the church construction
Efforts to build a Catholic church in Baranovichi were made during the years of the Partitions of Poland, but it was not possible at that time to obtain the appropriate consent from the Russian authorities. The first Catholic masses were celebrated in the ancestral chapel of Countess Elżbieta Rozwadowska, who died in 1904. A year later, thanks to the intercession of the Governor of Minsk, permission was obtained to build a wooden, makeshift temple in Byzantine-Russian style. In 1911, Mogilev Archbishop Vincent Klyuchinsky erected the parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Baranavichy (in 1917, it became part of the reborn diocese of Minsk). Construction of the church, however, became possible only after the restoration of independence.

In 1923, a church building committee was formed, headed by the new parish priest, Fr Lucjan Żołądkowski. The plot of land for the construction was donated by a parishioner, Maria Górska. The architectural design was made by the architect Tadeusz Żołądkowski. Construction work was carried out in 1925. On 18 October of that year, the Bishop of Minsk, Zygmunt Łoziński, consecrated the church. A week later, the new diocese of Pinsk was created, to which the parish of Baranovichi was incorporated. The parish's plan was for the wooden church to be a temporary solution, as it was intended to build a brick church. The new church was to be built in the city centre, at the junction of Mickiewicz and Kochanowskiego Streets (now Lenin Square). Financial problems related to the economic crisis meant that the construction was not completed. Only a wooden fence with a brick gate and parish facilities (rectory and parish house) were completed.

Architecture of the temple
The church was built as a timber-frame structure on a stone foundation. The body of the church retains the characteristic features of a Catholic basilica, with three naves passing into a low five-sided apse with an asymmetrically added sacristy. The symmetrical façade is formed by an entrance portico on two wooden columns, closed with a gable. A similar, larger gable crowns the body of the nave, while a rather high, decorative signature rises above the whole, giving the façade the impression of a tower.

The architectural elements and details present in the exterior of the church betray inspiration from the Zakopane style. It was developed in the 1890s by Stanisław Witkiewicz, painter and architect. The style was particularly popular at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and in the interwar period an attempt was made to reactivate it and reinterpret it. The use of Zakopane patterns is evidenced by the half-gable roofs, the studding over the windows and especially the radial decoration of the top of the portico in the form of a Zakopane 'sunflower'. In this case, this characteristic highland motif took the form of the Eye of Providence: such a way of linking the Zakopane style with Catholic symbolism was a common solution in wooden sacral architecture. The motif of the sun also appeared in the Zakopane half-timbered roof covering the sacristy.

It is worth mentioning that the Zakopane style was a very popular convention in wooden sacral architecture. Such forms were already in use by the end of the 19th century, as evidenced by the impressive churches of St George in Połoneczka and St Joachim in Kluszczany. On the other hand, the best inter-war examples include the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Konwaliszki (1916-1925) and the Church in Hrebenów (1936). These projects often combined Zakopane style with neo-Gothic or neo-Baroque elements.

Post-war fate
The wooden church in Baranavichy has survived to this day, but the parsonage and parish house have not. For several years after the war the church was not used. In 1949 or 1950. - after the demolition of the chapel of Our Lady of the Polish Crown - it was restored as the only Catholic church in the town and remained in use throughout the USSR. However, it was not an easy time for the parish, as both the faithful and the clergy suffered repression. In 1947, the NKVD arrested Father Jan Borysiuk, who had been parish priest since 1933. Sentenced to 10 years in a labour camp, he did not live to see the end of his sentence - he died in Siberia in 1953.

Since 1990, regular masses have been held in the church, and in 1993, thanks to the efforts of the parish priest, Fr Kazimierz Wielikosielec, the building was renovated, the interior and exterior were renovated and the altar was replaced.