Zembin
Town’s coordinates
Zembin agrotown, Barysaw district, Minsk region, Belarus, 222133. Latitude – 54.35915, longitude – 28.21581.
Point on the Google map
Distance to all other locations of our route in kilometers
Barysaw – 29 km
Lyubcha –199 km
Smilavichy – 106 km
Navahrudak – 243 km
Izabielin (Padarosk) – 347 km
Krynki – 403 km
Bialystok – 435 km
Orla – 458 km
Tykocin – 465 km
Local guides and local historians in Zembin
For a tour, contact the local Museum of National Glory (Address: 1 Leninskaya st., Zembin agrotown, Barysaw district, Minsk region; Phone: +375 17 777-51-18). You can also go for a walk around Zembin with the local historian Ales Pantsyaley, who has been researching the history of the former Jewish town for many years, as well as its Jewish heritage.
Museums in Zembin
Branch of the Barysaw United Museum “Museum of National Glory in Zembin agrotown”
The museum is located in the building of the local House of Culture (entrance from the opposite side of the building). Its main exposition is dedicated to the Barysaw region during the Second World War. There is also the art gallery of Nadia Khodasevich Léger – the iconic Belarusian-French avant-garde painter. In memory of her mother, who was born in Zembin, Nadia Léger donated some of her mosaics and reproduction of her paintings to the town. These treasures are worthy of being seen!
Unfortunately, the museum has no information about the life and artistic work of the Belarusian-Jewish poet Izy Kharik, who originates from Zembin. One can only see his portrait among those who were repressed in 1937.
Address: 1 Leninskaya st., Zembin agrotown, Barysaw district, Minsk region.
Phone: +375 17 777-51-18.
Coordinates: 54.358872, 28.218147.
Rural library No. 21 of Zembin agrotown
The local library, which is also located in the House of Culture, has several books by Izy Kharik. It also contains a true bibliographic rarity – the work of Geoff Sifrin from Johannesburg (South Africa), whose parents and relatives originated from Zembin. The book is called “To Gershn: Tales Of People Of Zjembin” and is published in English. To find out about these books, flip through them, and maybe even read them, contact the librarian Natalya Alyaksandrauna Kazak. Scanned excerpts are available in our guide.
Address: 1 Leninskaya st., Zembin agrotown.
Phone: +375 17 777-52-96.
Coordinates: 54.358759, 28.218086.
Jewish cult buildings and places of power in Zembin
The place of the former synagogue. Approximate address: near 1, Sovietskaya st. There was a synagogue on the main market square before the Second World War. Unfortunately, only the foundation, on which the store of building materials stands, and the plan-document of the measurements of the synagogue in 1894 have survived from the building.
Coordinates: 54.357783, 28.218410.
Mikvah. Not far from the ruins of the catholic church near the river Zembinka. The brick and stone mikvah building was built in the second half of the 19th century. Until recently, a sawmill operated in the building and its annex, now it is in an abandoned state.
Coordinates: 54.359803, 28.215093.
Jewish cemetery. On the western edge of Zembin, at the end of Izy Kharik street, to the right of the roadway (not far from the brick factory). Dozens of 19th – early 20th-century matzebot have been preserved at the cemetery.
Coordinates: 54.3542267, 28.2140917.
The place where Izy Kharik’s house stood. Savetskaya st., near the St. Michael’s Church. Izy (Yitzhak-Leib) Kharik, who was born and studied in Zembin heder, was a Belarusian Jewish poet who wrote in Yiddish, a public figure and a correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR (since 1936). He was executed by shooting on the night of October 29-30, 1937 in the basement of the Minsk internal prison of the NKVD (together with more than 100 figures of Belarusian culture, art and science). You can read about the arrest and the last days of Izy Kharik’s life at.
The poet was posthumously rehabilitated on June 13, 1956. Since 1998, one of the central streets of Zembin bears the name of Izy Kharik. Unfortunately, in 2001, despite the memorial plaque, Izy Kharik’s house was demolished. Only the foundation, overgrown with trees and bushes, remained from it.
Coordinates: 54.357771, 28.219622.
Additional info is available at.
Memorial in the Zembin ghetto. 9, Praletarski alley. Memorial complex in memory of 927 Jews shot on August 18, 1941. Local historian Alexander Rosenblum, who now lives in Israel, writes about this tragedy in his book “Memory on Blood: Jews in the History of the City of Barysaw” (1998). Excerpts from his book can be found at.
Coordinates: 54.360291, 28.220862.
Architectural units and other interesting places in Zembin, which can be seen on the way
Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Leninskaya st., between houses 19 and 21. The stone church was built on the site of the former wooden one in Zembin in 1798-1808. There was a school and a large library at the monastery, but the library was destroyed during the war of 1812. In the 19th century, the monastery was taken from the believers and confiscated to the treasury of the Russian Empire. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was reinstated as a Catholic church and restored.
In 1932, the Soviet government closed the church again. Since then, the building has gradually collapsed, and by 2022, all that remained of it was the front wall with the sculpture of the Virgin Mary under the cross, and mountains of bricks between the remains of the walls inside. On the night of April 9-10, 2022, part of the side wall and the pediment of the church collapsed. The authorities did not restore the wall: on November 25, 2022, the pediment was completely dismantled.
Coordinates: 54.361704, 28.219377.
Catholic cemetery. Behind the remains of the church. Pay attention to the gravestone of Adam Manyushka, a participant in the uprising of 1863-1864.After the suppression of the uprising, he was taken under police surveillance. His Zamoshsha estate was saved from confiscation by the fact that Manyushka registered it to the name of his wife Emilia.
Coordinates: 54.361704, 28.219377.
Saint Michael’s Orthodox church. 11 Savetskaya st. The brick church, built in 1904-1908 in the retro-Russian style, is located in the center of the village not far from the Orthodox cemetery. After the Second World War, the collective farm “Dawn of Communism” converted the temple into a warehouse for agricultural products and a threshing floor. The church building suffered the greatest damage in 1965 during the filming of one of the military episodes of the film “The Head Check” (directed by Nikita Mikhalkov). Thanks to donations, including significant financial assistance from the football club BATE from Barysaw, the temple was rebuilt in 2010-2014.
Coordinates: 54.357397, 28.220972.
Transport to Zembin
Getting from Barysaw to Zembin:
Public transport
Аўтобус “АВ Барысаў – Зембін”
Пн. – Пт.: 5:40.
Аўтобус “АВ Барысаў – Корсакавічы”
Аўт. – Чц.: 5:50. Аўт., Чц., 17:00.
Аўтобус “АВ Барысаў –Ніўкі”
Аўт., Чц.: 6:20, 15:00.
Аўтавакзал “АВ Барысаў – Броды”
Пн., Аўт., Чц., Пт.: 19:00.
Аўтавакзал “АВ Барысаў – АС Плешчаніцы”
Пн. – Нядз.: 7:10, 14:10.
Аўтавакзал “АВ Барысаў – Ніўкі”
Пн. – Пт.: 11:00.
Information desk of the bus station in Barysaw:
+375 17 773-02-22; +375 17 776-45-17.
Taxi
The distance between Barysaw and Zembin is 29 kilometers. You can get there by “Yandex-taxi” or by private taxi. Call the following numbers: 107, 135, 152, 157, 184, +375 17 776-69-50, +375 29 779-50-07, +375 17 776-69-38, +375 29 575-51-57.
Getting from Zembin to Barysaw:
Public transport
Аўтобус “АВ Наваполацк – АВ Бабруйск” з прыпынкам у Барысаве.
Штодзень: 12:05.
Аўтобус “АС Бягомль – АВ Барысаў”
Сб., Нядз.: 11:34. Пт., Сб., Нядз.: 19:53.
Аўтобус “АС Плешчаніцы – АВ Барысаў”
Пн. – Нядз.: 11:13, 17:33.
Taxi
You can get back to Barysaw by “Yandex-taxi” or by private taxi. Call the following numbers: 107, 135, 152, 157, 184, +375 17 776-69-50, +375 29 779-50-07, +375 17 776-69-38, +375 29 575-51-57.
Food (cafes, shops)
There is no cafe or restaurant in Zembin.
You can visit the “Produkty” store at the address: 1 Savetskaya st Zembin agrotown, Barysaw district, Minsk region.
Rest (hostels, hotels, etc.)
There are no hotels in Zembin, so we suggest you stay in Barysaw (see contacts in the relevant section).
(Infrastructural information was prepared by: Victoria Lapanik, Ksenia Tereshkova)
