Sightseeing in Minsk

Minsk is the largest cultural centre of Belarus. A lot of tourists come to Minsk every year. They are attracted by its architecture, clean and wide streets, its old and modern sights, theatres and of course, museums and art galleries.

The State picture Gallery, the largest museum of fine arts in the republic was founded in 1939. During the Great Patriotic War many paintings and statues of the gallery were taken away or destroyed by fascists. Soon after the war a decision was taken to restore the picture gallery in Minsk. New works were bought, some people gave their private collections to the gallery. In 1957 the picture gallery was renamed into the State Art Museum. The museum has got a collection of over 20.000 exhibits, over 9 000 of them are works of art by Belarusian artists. Belarusian art occupies the principal place in the collection of the museum. It contains Belarusian icons of the 15^th-16^th centuries. The museum also collected paintings by Belarusian artists who lived in the 19^th century. Some of them lived and worked in Russia but the roots of their works come from Belarusian culture and traditions.

The collection of the Belarusian art during the Great Patriotic War opened with the sculptural portraits of the Heroes of the Soviet Union N. Gastello by A.Bembel, and F. Smolyachkov by Z. Azgur, and the painting “Young Partisan” by Y.Zaytsev. Later paintings by M, Savitsky and other famous artists were included into the collection.

The museum also displays the best landscape paintings by Belarusian artists. Very often landscapes with portraits of people against them make the pictures more emotional and colourful.. “Landscape thinking” is characteristic of such famous Belarusian artists as D. Aleynik, L. Shchemelev, V. Sumarev, V. Versotsky who reveal the beauty of Belarusian nature as the spiritual condition so necessary for everyone.

A collection of West European art is also of great interest to visitors. It’s not vast, it includes portraits, landscapes and etchings done by famous artists.

Other museums popular with visitors are the Belarusian Museum of the Great Patriotic War, the State Museum of Belarus and Yanka Kupala Literary Museum. In the State Museum of Belarus you can see documents, photos, weapons, collections of instruments of the primitive man, displays of fauna and flora and other unique things from the history of Belarus and its culture. Yanka Kupala Literary Museum gives a good idea of the literary activity of the most talented and beloved Belarusian poet and writer.

Here in Minsk you can also find several smaller literary museums and picture galleries, especially if you go sightseeing in the oldest part of Minsk- Trinity Suburb.

“East or West Home is Best” “ There is no Place Like Home”

Well, it’s difficult to give an exact definition to the word ‘home’

I personally think that first of all ‘ home’ means your Motherland, the place where you were born, where you spent your childhood, went to school, made friends, maybe met your first sweetheart.

My homeland is Belarus. You can’t but admire the amazing beauty of this country.

I personally love my country for its blue sky, the peculiar flavor of its soil. I love it for its lakes with crystal-clear waters and fast-flowing rivers and for the fresh green rye fields. Perhaps Belarus is one of the few remaining places on our planet where you can see the miracle of the untouched nature.

Besides I love my country for the unusual beauty of the people around us. They are dignified and gifted, patient and hardworking, undemanding and modest. They are hospitable and are always ready to welcome guests and to treat them to something tasty, for example machanka with light porous pancakes or crispy draniki

Actually I love Belarus because it’s my home, the place I belong to

When I say ‘home’ I also mean my family, to be more exact, the atmosphere in it. I am happy to have a really good family. My parents are so loving and caring, supportive and tactful. They value my viewpoints and invite my opinions. They rarely show anger, especially in arguments. And what is more important they show strong belief in my abilities. The point is that my family is the place where I feel safe and protected.

The Nature of Belarus

“ Spreading the white sails of their wings, the storks are flying over our Motherland. There are thousands upon thousands of them- who can tell how many? One can see them on roof-tops of farmers’ huts and trees, on the columns of old ruined palaces and pillars of chapels standing amidst freshly green fields of rye. Their nests are everywhere…” These words belong to a famous Belarussian author Vladimir Korotkevich. Another poet Rygor Borodulin also called our land the “white stock shore”. One cannot agree more with this poetic description. A white stock is considered to be a symbol of peace and happy household, the things our land is known for.

To describe the beauty of our land one really needs to be a poet. If you go north, you will see a land of Braslav lakes with crystal-clear blue waters surrounded by pine groves. If you go west, you will find yourself in the Brest province- the land of immense fields and meadows. In the south you’ll be engulfed by infinite forests and marches. We call this land Polessye. The hilly lands of the Logoisk province are called Belarussian Switzerland..

In order to see and admire the beauty of our country you should sail down its fast-flowing rivers. The most beautiful rivers of Belarus are the Dniper, the Neman, the Dvina.

It’s a well-known fact that Belarus is called a lake country. There are about 10,800 lakes here. Lake Naroch is the pride of Belarus. Its surface stretches for 80 square kilometers. It is noted for its great depth, transparent water and beautiful scenery around it.

The Braslav Lakes are located in the North-West of Belarus. They were given a status of a national park in August 1995, and are known as one of the most picturesque places of Belarus. The flora of Braslav Lakes counts more than 800 species of plants. Various species of fish, birds and animal inhabit the area. Such endangered species as banger, lynx, brown bear and flying squirrel, included into the Red Book, are among them. The national park is the place for active and passive recreation, tourism, fishing and hunting.

The swamps of Belarus deserve a special mention. They are even included in the Guinness Book of Records. These unique natural ecosystems take up nearly a quarter of the country. In scale and diversity of life there are no equal places in Europe.

The real treasure of Belarus lies in its forests. Large and small, old and new, they cover a third of the country. Their canopy shelters a multitude of animals and birds. National parks and reserves- Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Braslavsky and Narochansky National Parks, Beresinsky Reserve and others- have been created to ensure the best protection for the rarest examples of Belarussian nature. Here one can enjoy the diversity of flora and fauna, some of which have survived only in Belarus.

The natural environment of Belarus is incredibly rich and varied. The beauty of its natural landscapes continues to charm its inhabitants and visitors. Actually Belarus is one of the few remaining places on our planet where one can see the miracle of the untouched nature. This very fact creates favorable conditions for developing tourism and recreation services.

Belarus. (form6)

Belarus is in the center of Europe. The population of Belarus is about 10 mln. People. The area of the country is 207,6 thousand sq. km. There are 6 regions in Belarus. Lake Naroch is the largest lake in Belarus. The Dnieper is the longest river. The clours of the national flag are green, red and white. The capital of Belarus is Minsk. Belarus is famous for its white storks. People say they are a symbol of good luck. The white colour is the symbol of peace. The blouses and shirts in the Belarussian national costume are white with beautiful red ornaments. The symbol of Belavezhskaya Pushcha is the bison. The symbol of Belarussian fields is the cornflower.

There are a lot of places of interest in Bealrus. One of them is Mir Castle. Mir Castle is in Grodno region. Radzivil Sirotka built a castle there in (1583) in the 16^th century.