Jesuit College in Polotsk

The Jesuit College in Polotsk (Latin: Collegium Polocense) was a college established by the Jesuit Order in Polotsk, then part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later occupied by the Russian Empire, and now in Belarus.

Polish King Stephen Báthory captured Polotsk in 1579 during the Livonian War and invited Jesuits to the city in hopes to lessen the influence of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

That saved the college from the suppression of the Jesuits as Russian Empress Catherine the Great did not follow papal decrees.

After lobbying by Joseph de Maistre, the college was elevated to an academy (equivalent to a university) in 1812 by Tsar Alexander I of Russia only to be closed eight years later when Alexander I banished the Jesuits from the Russian Empire and closed their schools.

[4] In 2005, former buildings of the college were partially reconstructed and transferred to the Polotsk State University.