financial resources often channeled into culture, art and decoration. Polish Armenian merchants imported objects of luxury: oriental carpets, weapons decorated with gold and stones, expensive fabrics. Kontush belts especially emphasized the status of the bearer and were unusually expensive. At a certain moment the demand for Kontush belts became so large that it was necessary to open local manufacturing on the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The workshops producing Kontush Belts in Slutsk, Grodno, Lvov, Vilnius, Buchach, Kobylki, Kraków, Gdansk, Lipkow were opened mostly by Polish–Lithuanian Armenians. The belts that were made there still had a lot of oriental ornamentation, but had their own distinct character – different from the belts formerly imported from Persia and Turkey. There was a practical aspect to the belt as well. Folded in half and wrapped around the body, it served as a pocket for money and documents. Most belts are about 30 cm wide and around 3,5m long. As a result of the weaving technique – one side of the belt was a negative of the other. This way it was possible for the belt to have two different color schemes (so called two-sided belt). Further division of the belt allowed for four color compositions (four-sided belt). The price of the belt depended on the materials used (sometimes they added silver and gold thread). The complexity of the design raised the price even more since it required more complicated manufacturing machinery, higher qualifications of the craftsmen and a longer production cycle. The four-sided belts were the most expensive. They were meant to be worn on different occasions: bright side – for weddings, dark side for funerals, green side for the green kontush etc. Very often the belt served as a table decoration – it was placed on the center atop the table cloth. See also żupan References External links Pictures https://web.archive.org/web/20060306184828/http://www.mnw.art.pl/Zbiory/stefan%20for%20web/pas%20kontuszowy.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070311022045/http://www.muzeum.slupsk.pl/grafika/galeria/duze/s751.jpg http://img.interia.pl/encyklopedia/nimg/kontusz15.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20080512064601/http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/kitowic/pas.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20070310214025/http://www.nova-polska.pl/fr/site/program/wy_in_splendor_poloniae/fo_dijon_pas_kontuszowy.jpg Further reading Maria Taszycka, Polskie pasy kontuszowe, Wyd. Literackie, 1985, Polish clothing Lithuanian clothing Lithuanian nobility Belarusian clothing Belts (clothing) Cultural heritage of Belarus