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TOP 5 Attractions in Belarus – 2015 Leaders by attendance (visitors)
Ideas for enjoyment, relaxation and making the most of your spare time in Belarus
National History and Culture Museum-Reserve at Nesvizh (over 400,000 visitors)
The National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve «Nesvizh» was created in 1993.
Museum collection began to take shape in 1996 In 2001, the balance Museum was transferred to the Palace ensemble.
The Republic of Belarus Nesvizh castle
In 2012, restoration work was completed in the Palace complex. July 20, 2012 was the grand opening of the Palace ensemble. Since 2010, the open-air museum headed by Candidate of Historical Sciences SM Klimov.
The balance of the museum are the following objects:
- The palace and park ensemble”, Jesuit monastery complex XVI – XVII centuries;
- Church of Corpus Christi, the ensemble of the town hall with a shopping arcade in the XVI.;
- Slutskaya pomfret second half of the XVI century., coaching courtyard of the XIX century.
Museum-Reserve is a 15-minute museum buildings with a total area of halls demonstrative 3250.4 m2. 44 permanent and 2 temporary traveling museum exhibition includes 24,414 items, of which the 5802 general fund and 18612 – scientific support.
Brest Fortress Hero Memorial (390,000 visitors)
On September, 25 1971 the memorial complex “Brest Fortress” was opened. More than 600 veterans of the Brest garrison 1941 were present.
There are the ruins of the old fortress, the battlefields, the monumental sculptures presented in a unified architectural and artistic ensemble of the memorial, that perpetuated the “true story of the legendary heroes of the Brest fortress”.
Gomel Palace and Park Esemble of the Rumiantsevs and the Paskeviches (300,000 visitors)
The Rumyantsev-Paskevich Residence is the main place of historical importance in the city of Gomel, Belarus
Gomel Palace & Park Ensemble is an old large noble estate decorated by the park and located on the picturesque bank of the Sozh River in the south of Belarus in Gomel City. This is one of the historical-cultural values of the Republic of Belarus, and it is included into the State List of the Historical Cultural Values protected by the State. There is a house-estate of the Khaletskis (an architectural monument of the mid-19th century) in 15 kms from Gomel (in Khalch Village of Vetkovski District of Gomel Region); it is one of the sites of the Gomel Palace & Park Ensemble, too. The Gomel Palace & Park Ensemble has been a state museum for 90 years; it has numerous collections, which are interesting both to amateurs and professionals. The museum halls regularly host art and history exhibitions, and exhibitions devoted to nature and various human activities. It is a place to organize events: concerts, conferences, official meetings of the country leaders.
The Palace & Park Ensemble includes:
- the Palace of the Rumyantsevs and the Paskeviches (an architectural monument in the Russian classicism style built in the late 18th – mid-19th century);
- the Chapel (an architectural monument in the New Russian Style built in the late 19th century),
- the Burial Vault (an underground coffin chamber for the Paskevich Princes),
- the Winter Garden, the Observation Tower and the Administrative Building (architectural monuments erected in the 19th century),
- the Park (a monument of nature and of garden art planted in the mid-19th century).
Mir Castle (over 285,000 visitors)
Mir Castle is a unique monument of Belarusian architecture, it was built by duke Ilinich in early 16th century near village Mir (Grodno Region) instead of wooden feudal farmstead, which existed there in 15th century.
This is a square-planned building with towers at the corners. The fifth tower had a drawbridge and a forged grille chersa which could urgently stop a sudden attack. The castle was well adapted for gunshot defense. Its walls had two rows of loop-holes, and its towers were intended for heavy cannon shooting from them.
The basis of the volumetric castle’s composition is its high towers which jut out beyond the wall-line. All of them have the same structure – tetrahedral core with octahedral top, but they differently decorated which gives original decorative value and beauty to the castle.
The representational means, characteristic for Belarusian Gothic, were used for plastic decoration of the Mir Castle: Gothic bricklaying (alternation of long and short sides of bricks) with walled up bricks, division of walls with plastered niches of various forms ornamental brick belts.
Since 1568 the Mir Castle was owned by Dukes Radziwils, who finished its building in Renaissance style. A three-storied palace was built along the eastern and northern walls. Its plastered facades were decorated with lime-stone portals, plates, balconies and porches. During excavations they collected a lot of glazed tiles with vegetable and geometrical ornaments, and coats of arms of the castle’s owners.
Earth walls were made around the castle with bastions at the corners; a water moat surround them. To the north of the walls an Italian garden was laid, to the south – an artificial lake.
Despite numerous destruction’s (the heaviest were during 1812 war) the Mir Castle survived till now; and at present it is being successfully restored. This monument is under UNESCO’s auspices.
National Polotsk History and Culture Museum-Reserve (over 200,000 visitors)
Cultural institution of scientific research and education Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve is a unique historical area where its monuments are being preserved, studied, restored and adapted for museum expositions. Some of the architectural monuments house the museums’ expositions: the Sophia Cathedral (11 –18th centuries), one of the buildings of the former Jesuit college (18th century), Lutheran church (1888), Brethren School (18th century), house in Voikova Street,1 and Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street, 46 (19th – beginning of the 20th century), Peter’s the Great House (1692), the Water Tower (1953). Altogether, Reserve includes 11 museums.
All immovable (architectural and archaeological) and movable (museum funds store over 90 000 items) monuments are included into museum collection of Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve.
Museum-Reserve itself including zone of preservation, zone with a special regime of construction, existing and future museums is the key to turn historical Polotsk into a museum town.
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