The Oshmiany region is located in the north-east of the Grodno oblast. It was founded on January 15, 1940. It is as large as 1,200 square kilometers. The population amounts to 38,500 people, with urban dwellers accounting for 41.3% of the total. The town of Oshmiany is the region’s centre. The region comprises 375 rural communities and 11 village councils.
The region is located within the Oshmiany Summit. Mineral deposits: peat, clay, sand and gravel. In the region there are rivers the Oshmianka, Olshanka, Kliava. The forests are prevailingly coniferous, with rare microphyllous forests (birch, aspen, alder). The forests occupy 34.5% of the region’s territory.
The total farmland area makes 65,700 hectares, including 8,400 hectares of dried-up lands. In the region there are 11 collective farms and one state farm. Main agricultural branches are meat and dairy animal husbandry, pig farming, flax growing, plantation of cereals, forage crops, potato, rape, vegetables. The industry is represented by food industry (cheeses, starch, meat, dairy products, dry skimmed milk), metalworking (precision molding, tool making), instrument making (radio engineering), light industry (flax fiber, footwear), formula feed industry and yeast production, production of construction materials and peat. The railroad Minsk-Vilnius and the motorways Minsk-Vilnius and Ostrovets-Grodno cross the region.
In the region there are 14 secondary schools, 13 basic schools, 11 primary schools, 19 preschool facilities, 6 healthcare facilities, one special school, a children’s sport school, an agricultural vocational school, a trade school. There is a sanatorium Oshmiany, a children’s recreation camp Druzhba, the Oshmiany Local Lore Museum named after Frantiљek Bogushevich and a branch of the National Art Museum in the village of Golshany.
Specimen of architecture: a Basilian monastery (the 18th century) in the village of Baruny, a Franciscan monastery (the 17th century) and castle ruins (the late 16th-early 17th centuries) in the village of Golshany, a 19th century church in the village of Gorodniki, a Georgian cathedral (late 18th – early 19th centuries) in the village of Gravzhishki, Saint Peter’s and Paul’s Cathedral (19th century) in the village of Zhuprany, a mansion house (19th century) in the village of Nikolayevschina, a printing works (late 18th – early 19th century) and Virgin Mary Cathedral (late 16th century) in the village of Murovanaya Oshmianka.
