The text describes the town of Novo-Alexandrovsk. Its history is briefly recalled and, above all, the description and history of the Catholic church there, although the author points out that there are many white spaces in the history. It is not even known when and by whom it was founded, although "it is only certain" that the initiator was Bishop Jan of Vilnius, a collateral son of Sigismund the Old, who was to endow the church in 1530. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1864, T:10, pp. 439-440., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Novoaleksandrovsk

On the very edge of former Lithuania proper, in the Kaunas Governorate, right on the Kurland border, amidst lakes, marshes and streams, sat the modest, secluded town of Novoaleksandrovsk, formerly Jesiorossy. One of these lakes, called Jeziorossa, or more properly Lake-Ossa, was considered sacred, or rather consecrated, in pagan Lithuania. We say consecrated, because we are not followers of those theorists who would like to tell the world that in Lithuania almost everything received divine worship, so much so that even an old broomstick could be counted among the Lithuanian deities.

The ancient Lithuanian was pious, because it rests in his spirit, but he probably worshipped one invisible, infinite god, to whom he gave human attributes, but probably did not bother to make him presentable. Of all the other deities, both major and minor, only a few could be found which a healthy critic, without being accused of credulity, could admit to the Lithuanian Parnassus and give them the same role as the Archangels of the Lord have in the Christian Church today, if we use this comparison.

Other deities, however, and there is an infinite number of them, are either the pure invention of chroniclers who, not knowing the Lithuanian language, spouted unbelievable things about mythology, or the tired offspring of more recent philosophers and historians who have apparently forgotten that mythology is the domain of history, not poetry, truth, not fantasy. There is no doubt, therefore, that Litvin held the works of nature in special reverence, that he sometimes bowed his head before the raging elements in the face of their power; but such reverence is not yet divinisation.

He worshipped the elements not for their own sake, but because they represented the power of God, because they were a visible sign of his omnipotent right hand, his all-seeing eye; in other words, these sacred groves, rivers, mountains, trees and lakes received almost the same veneration in Lithuania as paintings and statues of saints do in Poland. The lakes were not inferior in importance to other sacred works of nature. If, on the one hand, they offered the poor Lithuanian a great delicacy and excellent food - fish, on the other hand, he was probably not insensitive to the charms of nature, he did not look indifferently at the mirrored glass of water in which the earth and sky were so wonderfully reflected, the sight of which involuntarily filled his soul with blissful longing and encouraged him to sweet, fantastic pride.

The Lithuanian is by nature dreamy and poetic, and the lake is also by nature inclined to dreams and poetry; the former therefore loved the latter, confessed all his worries and pains to it, and bowed his head before this lover, eternal as the world and young as spring, and worshipped her divinely. In addition to the above-mentioned lake, there is another one called Osida, from which the Owilka River flows into the Western Dvina. Besides, the Novoaleksandrovsk area is dotted with many lakes and marshes, which we see no need to enumerate here. In such a place, seemingly hiding from the world, on a small hill, sat Jeziorossy.

Who and when they were founded, history is stubbornly silent, and our chroniclers, as if in collusion, do not deign to cast an eye on this poor little town, nor mention it. We can only assume that either Jeziorossy was too small a town or settlement to have attracted the attention of a proud monk-knight, or that it once had a different name, which would not be unusual when we consider that Lithuanian historians do not know what to do with dozens of names, unable to guess what places they served. Be that as it may, it is certain that it was not until the 16th century that they appear on the pages of the history of Lakeside. But here, too, even an unaccountable fog surrounds them. Some make them a starosty, others simply the table goods of the Vilnius bishops.

However, considering that we have not found any trace of the Lakes district governors anywhere in history, and that, as far as we have found out, none of those specialised in the history of Lithuania have ever heard of them, we must rather support the latter opinion. Again, history is silent about the later fate of this town. If Baliński only briefly mentions it in the work quoted above, other works of no less importance, such as "Starożytności polskie", published under the direction of Moraczewski, completely forget about it.

The same can be said of the Lithuanian chronicles and histories. It is only in the last thirty years that we have heard its name more often, since it was called Novoaleksandrovsk in 1836. In 1838, an obelisk was erected in the town to commemorate the construction of a gravel road between Kaunas and Edinburgh, which passes through Novoaleksandrivsk. Four years later, in 1842, Novoalexandrivsk became the capital of the Novoalexandrivsk district, which encompassed the entire former Braclav district. Since then, the rapid growth of this town dates.

A dozen or so years ago it was a poor, wooden town, now it shines with walls and is becoming more and more important every day. The town's location on the road connecting two such commercial cities as Dynaburg and Kaunas has also done a lot. Novoaleksandrovsk is only three miles from the former, and twenty-some miles from the latter. The relocation of the district authorities from Bratislava to Novoaleksandrovsk is no less important in this respect. But the two fairs that enliven and enrich it most are the one on January 15 and the other from August 3 to 15. In recent times, the Vilnius-Petersburg railway line was built here, and since then the town has probably doubled its income.

The population of the town today is nearly 4,000 heads. The history of the local church is as uncertain as the history of the town. When and by whom it was founded, we cannot really know. The only thing we know for sure is that the Bishop of Vilnius, John of the Dukes of Lithuania, a collateral son of King Sigismund the Old, furnished the church in 1530, but did not rebuild it, as some people claim. A hundred years later, Abraham Wojna, Bishop of Vilnius, always at his table, had the new church rebuilt after the destruction of the old one and duly decorated it with paintings and apparatuses, at least according to a report by the suffragan priest Slupskis, who found the church in the best condition during his visit in 1674.

We should add here, however, in parenthesis, that according to the "Antiquities of Poland" by Michał Baliński, St Anne's altar was founded here as early as 1522. Thus, our conviction that this temple had existed long before is confirmed. However, the church, rebuilt by Abraham Wojna, did not resist the hand of time for long. A dozen or so years ago, it was completely destroyed by fire, but generous contributions from all quarters were poured in and soon a beautiful brick church was built, which, although stripped of all souvenirs, always meets the needs of the inhabitants. The local markets, besides the famous linen, are full of excellent fish, of which probably the most famous is Novoalexandrovsk.

It is brought not only by poor inhabitants of suburbs, but also by local landowners. After all, the whole trade turns in the hand of the Jews. Not much can be said about the Novoaleksandrovsk residents themselves. Who has got to know the society of one town, has got to know them all. They are as similar to each other as two drops of water. Even the smallest town's industry and traffic has a special gift for homogenising its inhabitants, putting them under a general, if I may say so, roof, which everyone settling in the town sooner or later has to undercut.

The Jews seem to form a background against which, here and there, more or less distinctly, the shadows of other faiths and classes appear, which, though outnumbered, are not as likely to catch the eye of any visitor. On market days, and above all on festive days, you will see the figures of landlords and landladies wandering alongside the townspeople. The dress of the former is modest, but clean and decent. In the summer they wear black cloth caps with brim, in the winter they wear low round hats with a lambskin brim; on their feet there are bouffants or paws made of bast, and the whole body is covered with a grey self-made sarong, over which they sometimes wear a white tricot trimmed with a coloured belt.

In general, the local landowner, speaking pure Lithuanian, wealthy and reserved, is far from the humility and negligence of the landowners living on the Vistula river. If men's clothes are characterised by particular uniformity, women, on the other hand, go for bright, bright clothes, in which it is very common to find "silk" or "atlas". After all, their clothes are graceless and, above all, they disfigure themselves by clumsily tying kerchiefs on their heads. Married women only look beautiful in their namitas. This concludes our description, convinced that we have said everything we could about the Lakesiders. Lack of material is not our fault.