April 9, Vitebsk /BELTA/. A project dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Belarusian-Latvian relations will be presented in Vitebsk, the "Vitebsk" Cultural Centre informed BELTA.
The exhibition hall "Dukhovskoy Kruglik" will be the venue for celebrating the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Latvia on April 10. On this day, the project "Collection of Drawings and Descriptions of Livonia by Johann Christoph Brotze at the Academic Library of the University of Latvia" will be presented here.
Johann Christoph Brotze, the author of the collection, besides his successful pedagogical practice, had two serious hobbies. The first was the history of Riga, Livonia, Courland, Estonia, and Polish Inflanty. To comprehend historical evidence, he sought to gather comprehensive historical facts: he was interested in the details of economic development, peculiarities of administrative structure, and characteristics of political figures. Brotze's second hobby was drawing, which organically complemented his historical research.
Johann Christoph preserved for posterity sketches of unique buildings of his time: churches, castles, parks, estates, and residential houses in Riga, Livonia, Courland, Estonia, many of which have not survived to the beginning of the 21st century. The drawings captured representatives of various ethnic groups who inhabited Riga in the 1770s-1790s, and the peculiarities of their clothing. The artist left a collection of drawings, with astonishing accuracy copied coats of arms, coins, city plans, old engravings, and technical innovations of his time. Brotze created his drawings with ink, watercolour, or pen on paper tinted with watercolours.
A separate stand will feature residents of Vitebsk, Ludza Castle, which was part of the Vitebsk Governorate, as well as the first documented trade agreement between the territories of Latvia and Belarus (1229). Over the decades, Brotze's comments on his sketches have transformed his not always perfect, but touching works into unique historical documents.
The presentation will be attended by the Consul of the Republic of Latvia in Vitebsk, Dagnija Lāce-Āte, the Director of the Academic Library of the University of Latvia, Venta Kocere, and the First Deputy General Director of the "Vitebsk" Cultural Centre, Alexander Sidorenko.