Few people today know that once at the cemetery by the intersection of the Minsk-Baranovichi highway and the road to Novogrudok, there stood a church. This church belonged to the former village of Bolshaya Kolpenitsa. A monument of folk architecture from the late 18th century, it did not have any special architectural features and burned down closer to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Local residents still consider that fire, which occurred 40 years ago, mysterious and not accidental.

The church, located between the two Kolpenitsas, Malaya and Bolshaya, did not survive to its 200th anniversary by just a few years. Built in 1781, it witnessed the last years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its partitions. Although the peak of the struggle against religion in the Soviet Union had passed, both Kolpenitsas believe that local authorities were involved in the destruction of the church.

The Holy John the Baptist Church was built with funds from the Roman Catholic clergy of Vilnius. Next to the church stood a bell tower. Today, thanks to the efforts of interested parties, even the names of the priests who served in the church at different times are known. Gradually, people began to be buried around the church, and the courtyard turned into a cemetery. Residents of Baranovichi also visited this church, as mentioned by protodeacon Andrey Gorbunov in his book "The History of Orthodox Churches in Baranovichi." He refers to a commission's conclusion from 1903, which stated that there was neither a church nor a cemetery in Baranovichi, and the deceased from the town were buried here.

In 1913, the church was consecrated in honor of the Nativity of John the Baptist and underwent major repairs. It is known that in the 1960s, services ceased, and the church was finally closed. Local old-timers remember the times when the church was still functioning. Yevgeniya Layko, a resident of the former Bolshaya Kolpenitsa, recalls how festivals were held at the church.

In its last years, the church was in a dilapidated state, as noted by Yevgeniya Leyko. Services were not held, the church stood closed until someone broke the door.

In search of information about the last years of the Kolpenitsa church and the day of its fire, I had to talk to local residents. Almost all of them mentioned the same points: the abandoned state of the church, broken doors, dances, and inscriptions on the walls. They also spoke of some order for restoration and a sudden fire in 1978-1979. During the fire, the church was cordoned off, and firefighters were not allowed to extinguish the flames. The reasons given varied: from the inability to approach to an order to let the church burn. It is believed that the fire was intentional, but this can no longer be proven.

I managed to find an important witness to those events, a resident of Malaya Kolpenitsa who worked as a dispatcher for the fire service in Baranovichi. She requested not to be named and shared the following.

Today, one can ponder for a long time about what happened forty years ago. Only the bell remains from the Holy John the Baptist Church, which has become part of the memorial complex "Urochishche 'Gai'." This is noted by protodeacon Andrey Gorbunov, referring to local residents. The complex was opened in 1972, while the church burned down in 1978 or 1979. It is possible that the bell was removed earlier and used in the construction of the complex, but the exact answer to this question remains unknown. The bell on the monument in the Urochishche 'Gai' may originate from the Kolpenitsa church.