Novogrudok is not only the former seat of Mindaugas and his successors, but also a provincial town of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Numerous material traces testifying to the glorious past of the place have been preserved here.

Novogrudok's past clearly dominates the present of this somewhat sleepy town in Belarus. It was an ancient Ruthenian stronghold, the seat of Mindaugas and his successors to the Grand Ducal throne of Lithuania, a provincial town of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, after the Union of Lublin, the seat of the Lithuanian Tribunal, the lieu de mémoire of Polish Romanticism, and finally, until 1939, the smallest provincial capital in Poland.

Numerous material traces of the town's glorious past have been preserved in Navahrudak: the ruins of the castle (the site of King Mindaugas' baptism and coronation), historical temples - Catholic (the parish church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the so-called Vytautas Parish Church, and the sub-parish church of the Vytautas Parish Church), and the Church of the Holy Trinity (the so-called Vytautas Parish Church). The city's glorious past includes the ruins of the castle (the site of the baptism and coronation of King Mindaugas), the ruins of the castle (the site of the coronation of King Mindaugas and the coronation of King Mindaugas), the historic Catholic temples (the parish church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the so-called Vytautas Parish Church and the former Dominican church of St Michael), the Orthodox Church (the Borisoglebian Church and St Nicholas Cathedral - the former Franciscan Church of St Anthony), the mosque, the synagogue and Mickiewicz Mound built in the 1920s.

Vytautas Parish Church in Novogrudok
. The modern Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was built in 1719-1723 as a result of the reconstruction of an earlier Gothic church, founded at the end of the 14th century by Prince Vytautas. It is a simple, single-nave building, closed with a semicircular presbytery. Its façade, flanked by two squat towers, is dominated by a triangular gable.

The history and turbulent history of Vytautas Parish Church was described by Father Kazimierz Bukraba, parish priest and dean of Novogrudok in the 1920s and later Bishop of Pinsk, in an inventory drawn up in 1928 (the document is preserved in the archives of the Novogrudok convent of the Nazareth Nuns): The parish church of Novogrudok, called Fara, founded by Alexander Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, at the end of the 14th century, immediately after Lithuania converted to the Christian Faith [...]. In 1857, in view of the threat of the confiscation of the post-Moscow Dominican Church by the government of Moscow, and the great expense that the renovation of the Fara required, successful efforts were made to move the parish to the post-Dominican Church. From then on [...] also dates its [the Parish] total neglect and ruin [...]. It was not until 1921 [...] that the Committee for the Rebuilding of Novgorod Parish Church was re-established, and with the financial assistance of the Government of the Resurrected Most Blessed Republic of Poland, the planned reconstruction and conservation of the church and its two chapels began.

In the course of its history, Vytautas Parish Church has been the scene of many significant events, the most important of which was the wedding of King Vladislav Yahaila and Sonka Holshanskaya in 1422. In February 1799, the church was the scene of Adam Mickiewicz's baptism; the side chapel houses the miraculous image of Our Lady of Nowogródek, the patroness of "the castle castle town of Nowogródek with its faithful people", immortalised by the poet in his invocation from Pan Tadeusz.

Commemoration of Dusiacki and his companions in the Vytautas Parish Church
. The interior of Witold's Parish Church also conceals an unusual monument, a product of the Sarmatian mentality and at the same time an interesting example of an artistic motif known in art since antiquity. On the southern side wall of the Corpus Christi chapel, which is older than the 18th-century temple, a tombstone of Jerzy Rudomina Dusiacki, a trustee (carpenter) and courtier of His Majesty the King, and his eight companions has been preserved. They fell on 7 September 1621 during a charge by hussar flags against Turkish cavalry (spahis), personally led by the aged Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, Grand Hetman of Lithuania. The counterattack was one of the climaxes of the First Battle of Chocim: a month-long siege of the Polish-Lithuanian-Cossack forces, confined in a fortified camp, by the Turkish army supported by Tartars and Moldavians.

The founder of the commemoration in 1643 was Jerzy's brother, Novogrudok castellan, Jan Rudomina Dusiacki, who commanded a hussar troop at Chocim in which the fallen served. In 1622. Jan buried his brother's body in Vilnius (from where the Rudomin family originated, the wealthy Vilnius bourgeoisie, ennobled in the second half of the 16th century), presumably in the Bernardine Church of Saints Francis and Bernard. The commemoration in the Novogrudok parish church is therefore in the nature of a cenotaph, a symbolic empty tomb of a commemorative nature, made to honour the memory of the deceased.

Architecture of the Dusiacki cenotaph
The stone cenotaph consists of two inscription plaques, two relief scenes and a finial. An architectural moulded border connects the central and lower parts, separated by a cornice. The lower part of the commemoration consists of a horizontal rectangular inscription plaque in black Dębnik marble with a Latin majuscule inscription concerning the commemoration of the heroically fallen, which details the perpetual Mass intention in the form of a sung Mass, celebrated every Tuesday.

The central tier is a rectangular, sandstone relief composition of multiple figures depicting ten kneeling knights. The first figure to the right of the beholder, slightly larger than the others, depicts the founder, Jan Rudomino Dusiacki, in the posture of an orant holding a rosary in his folded hands. The other figures - among which the first on the left is Jerzy Rudomino Dusiacki - are decapitated, the second and fifth are supporting themselves on sconces, the others have their hands folded in a prayer gesture; in front of them lie three bodies and several decapitated heads.

In the upper part of the tombstone is a sandstone relief representation of Our Lady of the Rosary with the Child in her arms amidst clouds and putti. Our Lady holds a rosary and crown in her right hand, a laurel wreath in her left hand, the Child holds a royal apple in his left hand. Below is a rectangular plaque of black marble with a Latin inscription. It contains a presentation of the circumstances of the death of George and his companions, listed by name (Wieliczko, Taliszewski, Bykowski, Czudowski, Mogilnicki, Woyna, Tyszkiewicz, Osipowski), and the reason for the cenotaph's creation. The Polish translation of the texts of both inscriptions is given by the monographer of the monument, Katarzyna Kolendo, in her article Tombstone of Jerzy Rudomina and eight companions killed in the Battle of Chocim in 1621 ("Przegląd Wschodni", no. 27-28, 2001, pp. 875-886).

The crowning of the cenotaph - possibly secondary - was made of red marble in the form of volutes flanking an oval shield. The absence of a base may suggest a dislocation of the cenotaph from its original foundation site.

In 2012, Polish conservators carried out comprehensive conservation work on the cenotaph. The project of the Society for Academic Tradition was funded by the Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage 'Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad'.