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Belarus

Long regarded by travellers as little more than a curiosity, Belarus has suddenly emerged as one of Europe’s ‘it’ destinations. Fuelling that rise are relaxed visa requirements, a sneaky-good art and cafe scene, and hospitable locals. While political dissent remains muted, the country seems to be having fun again.

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Experience the real

　　Unesco World Heritage Site Belavezhskaya Pushcha National Park is the oldest wildlife refuge in Europe and the pride of Belarus. At the National Park headquarters in Kamyanyuki, 55km north of Brest, you can arrange to tour the park by bus, bicycle or private car, and you can spend the night...

Must-see attractions

Bereste Archaeological Museum

　　Pass through Kholmskie Gate in the Brest Fortress, cross a bridge and you'll spot the Bereste Archaeological Museum on the right. It's a large covered archaeological site where peasant and artisan huts from the 12th to 14th centuries have been uncovered. ...

Museum of Confiscated Art

　　This museum has an extraordinary display of mostly 17th- to 18th-century icons, jewellery, antique furniture and Chinese porcelain seized from smugglers trying to get them across the border to Poland during the 1990s. 　　Items on display are of unknown origin, hence their display in a museum rather than a return...

Museum of War, Territory of Peace

　　Built into the southern bastion of the Brest Fortress, this is the newest museum within the complex, focusing on WWII. It's modern and visual and has plenty of English descriptions. The 'battle room' does a good job of recreating the scene of an aerial bombardment, complete with sound effects, and...

Courage Monument

　　Dominating the middle of Brest Fortress is this iconic, monolithic stone statue of a soldier's head projecting from a massive rock, next to a skyscraping obelisk. CNN once put it on a list of the world’s ugliest monuments; you’ll either strongly agree or strongly disagree. Around the obelisk you'll see...

St Nicholas Garrison Church

　　Behind the Courage monument in the Brest Fortress complex is this attractive Byzantine church, which dates from when the town centre occupied the fortress site, making it the oldest church in the city. Once part of a large monastery before being turned into a soldier's garrison club, it was gutted...

　　During Operation Barbarossa in the early days of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), a small band of soldiers gallantly held off a superior Nazi force at Brest Fortress and became Soviet legends. Today the fortress is a rambling complex of museums and Soviet memorials dedicated to that siege. It occupies...

Museum of Railway Technology

　　The outdoor Museum of Railway Technology has a superb collection of locomotives and carriages dating from 1903 (eg the Moscow–Brest Express, with shower rooms and a very comfy main bedroom) to 1988 (far more proletarian Soviet passenger carriages). 　　You can go inside many of them, so train enthusiasts and children...

Zaslavsky Jewish Monument

　　This extremely moving sight, rather hidden away in a sunken gully amid trees off vul Melnikayte, commemorates the savage murder of 5000 Jews from Minsk at the hands of the Nazis on 2 March 1942. It is made up of sculptures of scared men, women and children lining up to...

　　In the heart of the Old Town just off central vul Lenina is charming pl Svabody, lorded over by the white medieval Ratusha (town hall). Off the northern edge of the square is the baroque, twin-towered Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, built in 1642. It was once part of...

Ў Gallery of Contemporary Art

　　This well-established gallery and cultural centre heralded a shift in the artistic landscape when it relocated to vul Kastrychnitskaya in 2018. It is named after a letter unique to the Belarusian language called 'u nieskladovaye', a symbol of sorts of the Belarusian national identity. This is one of the rare...

Belarusian State Art Museum

　　This excellent museum in one of Minsk's iconic buildings (built in 1939) includes definitive works by Soviet social realists and Russian masters, including Valentin Volkov's social realist Minsk on July 3, 1944 (1944–5), depicting the Red Army's arrival in the ruined city. Several works by Yudel Pen, Chagall's teacher, are...

Museum of Folk Architecture & Rural Lifestyle

　　Several dozen traditional wood houses, a school, a church and an old windmill have been transplanted to this open-air folk museum in Azyartso, 15km southwest of central Minsk. While not as developed as the similarly themed Dudutki museum nearby, this is a more authentic experience and a must for 19th-century...

Pr Nezalezhnastsi

　　The capital's main thoroughfare impresses with its sheer size. Formerly pr Francyska Skaryny, it runs from what travel writer Colin Thubron dubbed the 'ferroconcrete tundra' of outer Minsk to the modern (read: Soviet) city centre, terminating just northeast of the train station at the stubbornly austere and expansive pl Nezalezhnastsi....

Vul Kastrychnitskaya

　　Vul Kastrychnitskaya – still known by its Soviet name, ulitsa Oktyabrskaya – has blossomed into Minsk's unofficial arts district. Brazilian street artists have spray-painted brilliant murals on the giant facades of the street's apartment blocks, warehouses and factories, many of which now house event spaces, galleries and hipster cafes. President...

Museum of the Great Patriotic War

　　Housed in a garish new building, Minsk's best museum houses an excellent display detailing Belarus' suffering and heroism during the Nazi occupation. With English explanations throughout, atmospheric dioramas and a range of real tanks, airplanes and artillery from WWII, it's one of the capital's few must-see attractions. 　　Its section on...

Latest stories from Belarus

　　Homel's signature attraction was built by Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev in the late 19th century, soon after Homel became part of the Russian Empire. He couldn't have picked a more beautiful spot, high above the Sozh River in the middle of what today is Belarus' prettiest park. The palace is...

Nyasvizh Castle

Defence of Brest Hero-Fortress Museum

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