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MINSK
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Minsk is a political, cultural and economical center of the Belarusian state, the place where the president and the government sit.
The city was first mentioned in the chronicles in connection with the bloody battle at the river Nemiga, that took place March 3rd , 1067. The first mentioning of Minsk in connection with the bloody events as if determined its further life, that was a sequence of furious battles, destruction, inroads and revivals from ruins and ashes.
Minsk is one of the cleanest and greenest cities of Europe, and the only city in the world with a thousand years of history, that was almost completely destroyed as a result of the war and restored thanks to enthusiasm of architects and city-dwellers during several decades.
Cultural history of the city and the country presented in museums and expositions about Minsk is not less interesting. The city is the main cultural center of Belarus:
- 16 museums (the most significant are the Museum of the Great Patriotic war history, the National art museum, the National museum of history and culture),
- 11 theatres (the mist popular are the Academic Opera and Ballet theater, the Belarusian National theater named after Yanka Kupala).
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VITEBSK
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Although historians challenge this version, it is hard to resist the charm of Vitebsk landscapes that seem to be specially created for an artist’s brush. Indeed, Vitebsk possesses plenty of them. One should only mention the names of Marc Chagall, Kazimir Malevich, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and many others!
In 1919 Marc Chagall opened an Arts School in Vitebsk where the virtuosos of a brush of the time were teaching. They gave Vitebsk a peculiar art interior, having painted it in inconceivable colors and having created on its streets and squares the panels and posters with allegorical plots... Today the Arts Center and the Memorial Museum of Marc Chagall exhibit the documents and works of the Master relating on the years he and his parents spent in Vitebsk. Having arrived in the capital of France in the beginning of the XXth century, Chagall exclaimed: “Оh, Paris! You are my second Vitebsk!”
Art traditions of Vitebsk have not died away. There is the Arts Museum, several Arts Schools for children, a number of studios and showrooms. Two Universities prepare artists and designers. Works of local painters can be seen in museums and private collections in different countries of the world.
According to a legend, the city was founded in 974 by the Kiev princess Olga. She was captivated by the beauty of local high mountain at the merge of two rivers – the Western Dvina and the Vitsba (the latter possibly gave the name for the city)
Annually in summer Vitebsk becomes a musical capital: the International festival of arts “The Slavonic Bazaar” takes place here. Festivals of modern choreography and chamber music are also regularly held in this city. Old streets of Vitebsk and the graceful tower of the City Hall successfully accompany these cultural initiatives. |
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BREST
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Brest is an administrative center of Brest region, situated by the South-Western border of Belarus and is traditionally famous as . Today Brest population is 295,5 thousands of people and is really a cultural and industrial center of the Western Belarusian region.
The first mentioning about Berestje (the old Brest name) as about a trade and crafts center is referred to 1019 AD. In 1390 Berestje became the first city at the territory of contemporary Belarus that gained self-governing at the basis of Magdeburg right. In 1596 in the course of the church council Brest Union was concluded (a union of the Catholic and Orthodox churches at the Belarusian lands).. In 1917 Brest-Litovsk (Lithuanian Brest) was a place where an epoch-making peace treaty of the Soviet Russia with Germany was signed during the First World war.
Brest became mournfully famous during the Second World war, when the Brest fortress was the first to struggle against the German troops on June 22nd, 1941, what was the beginning of the Great Patriotic war. Orthodox Saint-Nikolay cathedral has been reconstructed and now functions at the territory of the fortress, also the archaeological museum “Berestje” is organised at the territory of the fortress.
At present Brest is not large but clean, this city welcomes everyone who comes to Belarus with its hospitality. Distinctive traits of Brest inhabitants’ character are calmness, tolerance and benevolence. |
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GRODNO
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Located on the border of the Polish and Lithuanian lands, it was an important strategic and trading place in the northwest of Kiev Russia. Such favorable geographical position promoted fast economic growth of the city and its transformation into the trading, crafts, and cultural center. Grodno has been recorded in written sources since 1128 as the center of an apanage princedom.
In the late 1270s Grodno became a part of the Grand Principality of Lithuania. The XIIIth and XIVth centuries passed in the incessant struggle against crusaders. In 1410 the Grodno gonfalon met the Teutonic order in the Grunewald battle. Grodno (alongside with Vilna) becomes the second capital of the Grand Principality of Lithuania under Vitaut. In the XVIth century the residence of Stephan Batory – the King of Poland and the Grand Prince of Lithuania – was there for ten years (1576 - 1586).
In the XVIth – XVIIIth centuries formed the unique complete ensemble of the city building pattern which even today sets Grodno out of other cities of Belarus. The number of monuments of history, architecture, and town-planning that have remained intact in the city on the Nieman river allows to speak of it as the museum-city with a special inherent charm. One can keenly feel here the presence of the past and the historical pulse of the city...
Grodno has more than 300 thousand residents. National societies of the Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Tatars, Germans, Jews and Ukrainians operate here. Therefore, every other year the International Festivals of National Cultures are held in Grodno. |
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POLOTSK
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Location: Situated in Vitebsk region.
Polotsk (Vitebsk region) is one of the most ancient cities in Belarus and Eastern Europe, it was first mentioned in chronicles in 862. The period of Vseslav Charodey’s (“Vseslav the Magician”)(11th century) rule was the period of flourishing for Polotsk principality, one of the largest Slavonic states situated at the strategically important point on the way and became the center of crafts and culture.
In 1066 Polotsk was adorned by Sophia Cathedral -- a unique pearl, an exact copy of the Byzantine sacred place. Sophia Cathedral became the third cathedral of this kind at the Slavonic lands after Kiev and Novgorod Cathedrals.
The city was a cradle for Saint Ephrosinya Polotskaya who was one of the most significant persons in the Middle Ages and now is a saint protector of Bearus. She founded Saviour-Ephrosinya female monastery (in 1120-ies). The Saviuor-Ephrosinya church with its unique 12th century frescoes, forms a part of the monastery and is an outstanding memorial of Polotsk architecture school. One of the most precious sacred objects in the monastery is a famous Ephrosinya Polotskaya cross, created in 1161 by a jeweler Bogsha. This cross as well as the relicts of the Saint protector became an object of worship for thousands of pilgrims, who arrive to Polotsk annually from all the country.
The name of the city is connected with another light of the Belarusian culture – the first-printer Francisc Scorina. In Prague in 1517 he was the first in the history of the Eastern and Southern Slavs, to print the Bible in the Slavonic language, in particular in the Belarusian language understood by the common people. It is possible to get acquainted with the activity of the enlightener in the Museum of book-printing.
A giant of the Belarusian history, Polotsk is still not completely studied and seized to the bottom. But it could open its secrets to the ones who love the city with all their heart. |
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GOMEL
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It is the second largest city of Belarus. Placed on a high bank of the river Sozh, an inflow of the Dnieper, Gomel is more than 860 years old. But archeologists have long been challenging this conclusion, considering that the city is about 1000.
The settlement appeared in the territory occupied by the Slavic tribe of Radimichi that together with Krivichi and Dregovichi made a basis of the Belarusian ethnos. For a long time Gomel remained a small settlement exposed to numerous devastation during the long wars between the Grand Principality of Lithuania and the Moscow Principality, and then between Rzech Pospolita and the Russian Empire. Only in 1852 Gomel really became a town and a regional center of Mogilyov province in the structure of the Russian Empire. Gomel has become a large industrial city in Polessye, an important railway junction and one of the busy trade centers by the end of the XIXth century.
The main Gomel sight is the extensive Rumyantsev-Paskevichy’s Palace-Park Ensemble. Started by the hero of the Russia-Turkish War Marshal P.Rumyantsev on the place of a wooden castle, this wonderful architectural sight was then rearranged by its next owner prince I.Paskevich in the middle of the XIXth century. It is one of the first examples of constructions in Classicism style in Belarus. The late Renaissance motives of the outstanding Italian architect A.Palladio are reproduced in this fine specimen of architecture. The hovering over the city palace is surrounded by a large landscape garden with rare species of exotic trees. The ensemble also includes the magnificent Peter and Paul Cathedral (1824) and a chapel (1889) with Paskevichy’s family tomb.
Another architectural rarity is the XVIIth century wooden Ilia Church. |
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ZASLAVL
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The laborious work of archeologists solved the riddle of Zamecheck to a considerable degree. The story started in Polotsk with a “bloody marriage” of prince Vladimir and Polotsk princess Rogneda and had been frequently recollected in Russian epic and chronicles. Taciturn written proofs of ancient times, colorful poetic and prosaic works, theatrical plays and modern screen versions relate about it…
Here was the place where the proud princess Rogneda-Gorislavna was lodged after the exile from Kiev by her husband. For the princess, her son Izjaslav, and the accompanying guard Zamecheck became a small fortress. After christening in 988 prince Izjaslav occupied the Polotsk throne. But Rogneda remained here, in Izjaslavl. She voluntary accepted monkshood and adopted the name of Anastasia. They say, she also founded a monastery in Izjaslavl where she spent the last days having lived three lives for 30 years – the one of a Polotsk princess, the next of a wife of Grand Prince of Kiev, and, at last, the life of a nun...
With the time passing Izjaslavl changed. The town entered the XIth century different. Zamecheck faded away and carried away many mysteries, while nearby on the banks of the rivers Svisloch and Chernitsa the present Zaslavl was started to grow. Mighty earthen ramparts and bastions of the castle built by the Glebovichy magnates in the XVI – XVII remain till nowadays. At that time the white stone building of the Calvinist Church appeared inside the fortification. Later, the temple was altered to the Roman-Catholic, and then to Orthodox Church.
The Salvation-Transfiguration Church is one of the two major architectural dominants of Zaslavl. The second is the Mariinsky Roman-Catholic Church of the XVIIIth century. The verticals of their belfries clearly mark the two territories important in the town’s historical landscape. They are the Castle (residence of the feudal lord) and the clinging to it Market (center of the trading and crafts settlement). The Renaissance and Baroque appearance of these cult monuments fits in the ingenuous rural landscape and their charm remains in memory for a long time inducing visitor to linger over it...
Zaslavl celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 1985. Its most ancient relic is “Zamecheck”, i.e. the Small Castle. |
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NESVIZH
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Location: Situated in Minsk region.
Nesvizh is a real pearl of the Middle Aged Belarus, and it is impossible not to visit it when coming to the country.
Nesvizh birthday is considered to be in 1446, when the great prince of Lithuania Kazimir IV Yagellonchik gave Nesvizh to Mikolai Yan Nemirovich. In the end of 16th century a town hall with trade center was built, and now they still symbolize the freedoms granted to the city by the Magdeburg right for self-government. In 16-17th centuries the city started to belong to the prince Mikolay Kryshtof Radzivill ( (“Orphan”)), who changed the city plan completely and reconstructed it following the European example. At that very period the city experienced flourishing of its riches and culture.
In 1584 a palace was founded in Nezvizh at the place of the old wooden estate. The palace was a family house of the Radzivills – a magnate noble family -- and was reconstructed several times. In 1596 Radzivill “Sirotka” and his wife Elzhbeta Ephimiya financed construction of Benedictine monastery. Nesvizh also attracts by its Farny Cathedral of the Most Sacred God’s Body, constructed in 1593 as a cathedral of the Jesuit monastery (collegium), and is the first Baroque architecture memorial at the territory of Eastern Europe.
The Radzivills family’s burial-vault is situated in the cathedral (72 burials, some of them are preserved as mummies, (the last burial dates back to the year 2000 ), this burial vault is the only necropolis of the historical family in Eastern Europe.
Slutsk Brama (arch) (16th century), palace gates tower (16th century), plebaniya (a house by the church) (18th cent.) all these are the memorials testifying the great history of the town, ready to welcome its visitors with hospitality and open its secrets to them. |
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DUDUTKI
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There is an unusual ethnographic museum “Dudutki” just 40 km to the south of Minsk.
All the excursion-and-museum activity and entertainment are held in full conformity with nature in the vicinity of former country estate of the famous Belarusian writer, historian, ethnographer, and student of local lore Alexander Yelsky (1834 – 1916). Here one can get acquainted with a collection of old automobiles, enjoy cart and horse riding, watch a skilled workman demonstrate his art in a pottery, see a real wind mill and taste national Belarusian cookery. Picnic in the open air finishes your visit to this museum. |
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STROCHITZA
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The latter village is a live exhibit of the museum for it has retained its old lay-out and interesting wooden constructions.
The museum of national material culture is 16 km southwest from Minsk, on the picturesque bank of the river Ptich, between villages Ozertso (in the north) and Strochitsy (in the south).
This rare in its beauty of landscapes place seems to be created by a whim of nature to present in miniature the whole of Belarus with the historic and ethnographic peculiarities of its regions.
The museum was started 1976. Now it represents three (out of six) ethnographic regions of Belarus: Central Belarus, Poozerie (northern part), and Podneprovie (south-east). From those regions a rural school, the Uniat church, a pot-house, a windmill, a smithy, a bath-house, and other habitats have been moved to Strochitsy... All these allow visitors to absorb the world of wooden Belarus.
Close by the museum there is a unique in the size (30 hectare) archeological sight – the ancient settlement on the river Menka which scientists consider to be the origin of the legendary town of Menesk. Though founded on Menka, by the end of the XIth century Menesk had moved to the banks of the Svisloch and the Nemiga to become Minsk in the course of time.
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