Vitebsk to name a street after Euphrosyne of Polotsk

MINSK, 5 January (BelTA) – One of Vitebsk streets might soon be named after Euphrosyne of Polotsk, BelTA learnt from head of the architecture and town planning department of the Vitebsk Town Executive Committee, chief architect, head of the city’s toponymic commission Vitaly Dubik. This year Polotsk is celebrating its 1150th anniversary. Therefore, Vitebsk is considering naming a street in Zheleznodorozhny District in honor of Saint Euphrosyne. Saint Euphrosyne was an enlightener, one of the greatest women of the Medieval Europe who founded a convent in her native town of Polotsk. According to Vitaly Dubik, the topic is to be discussed publicly. “The renaming of one of the streets in the northwestern part of the city in the direction of Polotsk is on the agenda and will be settled in the near term,” he added. There are over 500 streets, lanes, avenues and squares in Vitebsk. They are named after heroes of the Great Patriotic War, like Gastello, Zaslonov, Chernyakhovsky, revolutionaries, like Volodarsky, Kalinin, famous historic figures, like Razin, Pugachev, poets and writers, like Pushkin, Gogol, Korotkevich, Brovka. Some streets have romantic names, like Maple Street, Flower Street or Fruit Street; there are also geology-related names like Chalky Street, Sand Street, Peat Street and even Diamond Street. However, despite the toponymic diversity, there are only some dozens of names commemorating famous people who were born here: there are streets named after Francysk Skaryna and Marc Chagall.

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