Kotlubay Manor in the Village of Yastrembel

The village itself, located in the Baranovichi district of the Brest region, is first mentioned in the chronicles at the beginning of the 16th century. The owners of Yastrembel over the centuries were representatives of noble families - Dorogostaiskies, Podorevskies, Rdutlovskies. In the middle of the 19th century, a nobleman with Tatar roots, Mikhail Kotlubay, becomes the new owner of the settlement. After Mikhail's death, the estate passed to his children - Heinrich and Edward. Both brothers were educated, highly intellectual people. Edward Kotlubay is known as the author of a book about the history of the famous noble family "The Nesvizh Gallery of Radziwill Portraits".

At the end of the 19th century, the Kotlubay decided to renew their ancestral home, building an elegant stone palace on the site of a wooden house. The construction of the building was completed in 1897. The two-story manor house in the neoclassical style was a stone building with an adjoining four-tiered tent tower and a semi-circular home chapel. The central entrance was framed by columns with moldings.

The facades of the building were richly decorated: arched windows with cornices, walls faced with rust and panels, and decorated with rosettes and pilasters. Inside, the house consisted of 18 rooms. The interiors of the manor looked no less luxurious: floors laid with parquet and ceramic tiles, stucco, sculptures, paintings, and frescoes depicting ancient scenes.

In addition to the house, the manor complex included a distillery, stable, coach house, farmyard, picturesque park with a pond, sawmill, and a brick factory.

During the revolution of 1917, the Kotlubay family nest in Yastrembel was looted, and its last owner, Zigmund Kotlubay, was arrested. The estate itself was given to the needs of an orphanage. The building was rebuilt, combining all rooms into one space, the interior of the house was destroyed, and almost all the manor buildings were ruined.

From the early 70s to the early 90s, the manor housed a boarding school. After the institution's wards moved to a new building, the building began to fall into decay. In the last decade of the 20th century, the roof of the building was repaired and the windows were replaced, but the restoration work was stopped there.

At present, the former home of the Kotlubay family is in a dilapidated condition. Despite this, the manor continues to attract lovers of antiquity, original architecture, and atmospheric abandoned buildings. Of all the farm buildings of the manor complex, a distillery located not far from the house has survived. Also, the park area with rare tree species is still located around the manor.

Yastrembel is located 15 kilometers from Baranovichi. From Minsk, it is easiest to get to the manor by car. Another route option is to go by train or bus to Baranovichi, then by bus "Baranovichi-Novosady" to the village of Yastrembel.