THE CELLARS OF THE MAIN BUILDING OF BERNARDINE MONASTERY IN POLOTSK: FULL-SCALE INVESTIGATION
This article presents the results of a full-scale investigation of the cellars of former Bernardine monastery in Polotsk. On the basis of the preserved basement reconstructions we assume that the cellars originally occupied the whole building and could be connected by underground passageways with other monastic buildings and have underground utilities leading to the side of the Western Dvina. The conducted visual investigation made it possible to specify the principal directions of architectural and archaeological research aiming to find other parts of the basement and explain why the monastic building lost some of its volume recorded in the engraving of the XVIIIth century.