What to see in Minsk? What to do in Minsk? What are the best place to go? We recommend you the list of sightseeings
Stalin’s Empire of Independence Avenue
“Of course, you need to immediately drag a foreign friend to our main avenue to look at the surviving Stalinist empire, because many tourists go to Minsk” on it. “This is a banal recommendation, but how without it? “The Minsk people interviewed told me. Without Independence Avenue with the ensemble of buildings that came to us, but so unusual for a foreign eye, on both sides of the roadway is really nowhere. You can walk along most of the avenue: from Myasnikov Square to Chelyuskintsev Park. There is no point in walking further, my legs will still be humming. And if, along the way, you wander into Independence Square to the Red Church of Saints Simeon and Elena, turn into Alexander Square with his famous fountain “Boy with a Swan,” and near the obelisk on Victory Square you show news with a sensational photograph of a model girl, the question of “how to occupy a friend” will fall away. For one day, for sure. What to see in Minsk of course
Central Parks, Kennedy Killer House and Live Swans
Minsk has many parks and squares. To the stereotype “clean” city let us allow ourselves to add “and green.” On Independence Avenue there are two large parks near each other at once: Gorky Central Children’s Park and Chelyuskintsev Park. The first is located around Svisloch. In warm times, you can ride rides and eat sugar wool, and in cold, just walk, watching the movement of protein through the snow and trees. Gorky Park is surrounded by buildings that will probably be interesting to your friend: the circus building, the Opera House (be sure to come to the fountain in front of it in the summer), the House Museum of the 1st Congress of the RSDLP. This museum will probably be interesting to a limited circle of people, but the building, which is located right near it, will not leave anyone indifferent.
On the fourth floor in apartment 24. This fact, like the twisted biography of a foreigner, intrigues any guest. It is a pity that at the entrance to the entrance you will not buy a mask and a magnet with the image of Lee Harvey – conscientious Minsk residents are embarrassed by such a fact in the history of their city.
A walk through Chelyuskintsev Park can be combined with a visit to the Botanical Garden. For some reason, few Minsk residents bring their visiting guests here, and in vain: in a warm time, it is unbearably good and easy to breathe here. In May, lilac blooms and smells mind-boggling in Botsadu, at any time from spring to autumn you can observe snow-white swans that swim majestically in a restored pond, and sometimes go ashore and hiss on visitors. There are coniferous alleys, a rosarium, a “pharmacy garden” and many interesting snacks.
Komsomolsky Lake Islands and the romance of Loshitsky Park
Two more picturesque places were recalled by the interviewed Minsk residents: Victory Park and Loshitsky Park. The first is located on Winners Avenue around Komsomolsky Lake. This is a place with chic fountains, shady streets and bike paths. Walking here, you can delve into the greenery and explore the islands of Lake Komsomolsky: Birds, Komsomoltsev (the largest, with many installations), as well as small islands that can be reached using a boat. What’s not a water quest? Such a walk will be remembered by you and your comrades for a long time. And if you drive further along Winners Avenue, you will find yourself in the picturesque area of Drozdy. Journalist and editor Maria Stolyarova notes that a bike ride in this place in Minsk can be a good vacation: “And get some air and see how modest Belarusian officials live. Actually, the place is very beautiful, if you stand with your back to the residential complex.”
If you want a little romance, take tourists to Loshitsky Park. This place was previously pleasant and “walking”, now the park has been restored, it has become even more sterile. The park is famous for its arbors, in which a significant part of the Minsk residents kissed, and the estate of the Lubansky puns. Give a little mysticism to the place, telling your comrades the legend according to which there was a mill in the apple orchard (there are remains of it now), in which a lady hanged herself due to unhappy love…
Famous delicious Komarovka
Markets are the gastronomic soul of cities. And with this, we are all right. The main market – Komarovsky – located in the city center, is so beautiful that it even has its own Instagram account with 12 thousand readers. Here, with a competent approach, you can spend several hours: visit the seasonal market and chat with boisterous grandmothers selling pumpkin and dill, find out which “bulb” is tastier and why, choose the freshest vegetables and at the same time do not stop smiling. In the indoor part of the market, you are still waiting for the same combative sellers from whom you can buy everything: from the home “milk” to lamb, which cannot be found in supermarkets. On the second floor you can drink coffee, look at the Indian shop, pick up spices for dressing. Having bought what you wanted, do not rush to leave this place – bite at the point with the most delicious shawarma and falafel in Minsk (the landmark is the Coin shopping arcade). Having talked and reinforced, you can go to the next mandatory point of our guide.
Frida Kahlo and Count Chapsky on Oktyabrskaya Street
Of course, this is Oktyabrskaya Street, which no one spoke about five years ago, and now it is almost in first place in the lists of Minsk residents who are waiting for guests from other countries. An interesting fact: only one person from the respondents named the National Library, and almost everyone said about Oktyabrskaya. With the addition “of course.”
You just need to walk along this street and look carefully on the sides: at every step you will be waiting for the grandiose colorful street art of the work of Belarusian and Brazilian artists. Thanks to the Vulica Brasil festival. You can come here to swing your hands, do yoga or eat a pancake with cider. In the CEC space, you can attend an exhibition or event, hum in a bar a floor below, buy combustible souvenirs in the Kryshtal factory store. Arrange a quest for your friends: ask to find Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh and Count Chapsky on factory buildings that stretch along the street.
Military cemetery and Church of Alexander Nevsky
Visit to the Church of Alexander Nevsky on the territory of the Military Cemetery: “This is an amazing place that survived all the wars of the late XIX century and the entire XX century. During the bombing of the city during the Great Patriotic War, a bomb fell into the temple — and did not explode. She was neutralized and taken outside, for some time she stood at the temple instead of the bench. Literally two steps from the temple, the oldest graves of military officers who died in the Russian-Turkish war were preserved in the city. At the military cemetery around the temple are the graves of famous Belarusian writers: Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala, Kuzma Chornag and others. A noble place, take your guest there for sure. “
Minsk for historical connoisseurs: the oldest temple, mosque and cemetery
A separate list publishes the recommendations of people who know Minsk along and across — historian, journalist, guide Viktor Korbut and photographer Dmitry Lasko. Recently, they published the album “Minsk. Spadchyna of the old city. 1067–1917 “to the 950th anniversary of the city. Victor and Dmitry, said that you need to look at historical in Minsk and settled in detail on buildings in the vicinity of Liberty Square, where every stone matters. If you and your friends are fond of religion, we recommend studying this part of Minsk in more detail.
City Hall, Voit Sculpture and Moniuszko Monument
In the area of Liberty Square, where you can come with foreign friends after, say, a walk along the Trinity suburb, you will stick for a long time. “Freedom Square is a unique place in the city where you can eat, pray and love,”. More precisely, you will not formulate. The surroundings of the square are also interesting. Here is the most party and drunken Zybitskaya street, Herzen, Cyril and Methodius streets, Musical lane…
Wander around this part of Minsk, simultaneously reading the inscriptions on the memorial plaques of buildings — they will tell you what is in front of you. We will tell you about some buildings that we attributed to the must visit list below, but we will begin our acquaintance with Freedom Square with its main attraction — the Town Hall, a symbol of Minsk’s independence. On a snow-white building with columns you will see a 32-meter tower with the coat of arms of Minsk and a weather vane. The figures “1591-2003” indicate the times when the city had a coat of arms and the relatively recent date of restoration of the building. On the tower you will see a watch whose chimes hit 20 seconds every hour. Do you know what kind of melody is pouring from a height? Let’s say: this is Igor Luchenok’s “Song about Minsk.”
Near the building of the Town Hall there are several sculptural compositions: both the pop-up “A Pair of Horses Harnessed in a Bicolk” and more recent sculptures: “City Scales,” a voice with a royal letter and key over the plan of Minsk of the 16th century, a monument to composer Stanisław Moniuszko and his friend playwright Wincenty Dunin-Marcinkiewicz After a 20-second melody dedicated to Minsk, and several photos on horseback, you can drink a glass of wine in the institution, which is located between the Town Hall and Winners Avenue, and go further to dive into history.
Is it what to see in Minsk more? Yeah?
The building, which was a gymnasium, prison and museum
The yellow building at 23 Liberty Square can easily pass by, but do not rush. Few places in our city boast such an amazing story. Here in the XVII century there was a male building of a complex of Basilian monasteries (it was rebuilt and did not survive in its original form, but the convent’s women’s building was preserved nearby), later – the first Minsk gymnasium, which produced such famous people as Tomas Zan, Evstafy Tyshkevich and Stanislav Manyushko, immediately in 1908 the classic of Belarusian literature Yakub Kolas was sentenced to prison, and during the Great Patriotic War (from 1941 to 1943) it was this building that the deputy Adolf Hitler, the Commissioner General of Belarus Wilhelm Cuba, chose as his residence. In 1944, the building became the House of Trade Unions and on its third floor the first exposition was opened dedicated to the life and work of the second classic of Belarusian literature Yanka Kupala. Now the Yankee Kupala Museum is located nearby — in a square on a street named after the poet. If your friend loves literature, take him there. What to see in Minsk that’s a three-story house, dehumidified around the perimeter of the cafe, which was both a museum and a prison, and a place for prayers and science.
The oldest building in Minsk
What to see in Minsk else? Wander into the very beginning of Engels Street. Here you will find the oldest building in Minsk — the former monastery of basilions. This is the very building that, unlike its “brother” for male monks, the story spared. In this building, cellars and small fragments of the walls of the first and second floors from the distant 16th century have been preserved. Think of that date by closing your eyes. Do you feel the goosebumps running on the skin? Unfortunately, the most interesting details of that time are now hidden under layers of plaster, but they are! Standing on the corner of Engels and Herzen streets, you can see two niches – this is a fragment of walls with renaissance elements. Now in this building is the Glebov Children’s Music School of Art.
While you are in this part of Minsk, you can look into the souvenir shop. Do not look for souvenirs in wooden “houses” near the Town Hall – you are unlikely to like anything there. There is an interesting shop on Herzen Street: forged things, stylish souvenirs with ornaments, jewelry, toys and even clothes. In the summer, on weekends around the Town Hall there are merchants of their hand-made products, they can also buy something worthwhile.
The oldest Orthodox church in the city
After walking along the streets near Liberty Square, you can go to the surroundings of Rakovskaya Street (Oboynaya, Vitebskaya, Osvobozhdeniya Streets) — there is also a place to walk, taste national cuisine, drink beer and see what. For example, the oldest Minsk Orthodox church is the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. After 1793 year, when the Minsk diocese was created and the church became a cathedral for some time, it was allegedly repaired at the expense of the Russian Empress Catherine II and renamed (allegedly of her own free will) to St. Catherine’s Cathedral. A century later, the cathedral building was reconstructed, a large dome was erected above it – they wanted to give it the appearance of an Orthodox church. And after a century, the building was returned to the view of the XVIII century. This is how Minsk residents and tourists see him.
The only mosque of Minsk
Located at 29 Griboedov Street. If you show a foreign friend “Minsk Church,” you can’t do without this object. At the same time, take a ride on Winners Avenue by public transport. You can also walk after shopping at the Crown or after breathing in Victory Park. Let’s go back to the history of the mosque. From the beginning of the 16th century, the Tatar Settlement was known in Minsk. At the end of the 19th century, 1,146 Tatars lived in the city, for whom a mosque was soon built — next to the Yubileynaya Hotel on Winners Avenue. But in 1967 the building was demolished and restored already in a new place in November last year. What to see in Minsk moreover
And on the last — the ancient cemetery on Kalvariskaya street
Many Belarusian people like to visit old cemeteries in Vilnius, Warsaw and Prague. There is some charm in them. You wander between rows, you read suede signs in Polish, you listen to the crushed birds, and it becomes calm and quiet. There is also a place in Minsk where foreign friends who came for silence and mysticism must be brought down. It’s about the Calvary cemetery on the street of the same name. In Minsk, this is the oldest cemetery known since the 17th century. Many famous citizens are buried here: Belarusian public figure Vaclav Ivanovsky, poet Yanka Luchina, writers Vyacheslav Adamchik, Ivan Naumenko, Nil Gilevich and many others. But first of all, this is the cemetery of the Minsk Belarusian-Polish aristocracy, as evidenced by inscriptions on monuments in Polish
What to see in Minsk more? It depends on you and what you really like!